
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



ipT.. 



53T 



ChapT. Copyright No..„. 

ShelLtlL J£ A 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE. 



Gbautauqua IRea&tng Circle Xiterature 



EUROPE 



IN THE 



NINETEENTH CENTURY 



BY 
HARRY PRATT JUDSON. LL.D. 

Head Professor of Political Science in The University of Chicago 




MEADVILLE PENNA 

FLOOD AND VINCENT 

Cbe (ftbautauqua^enturi? ^xtH 

NEW YORK : CINCINNATI: CHICAGO: 

150 Fifth Avenue. 222 W. Fourth St. 57 Washington St. 
1898 



The required books of the C. L. S. C. are recommended by 
a Council of six. It must, however, be understood that 
recommendation does not involve an approval by the Coun- 
cil, or by any member of it, of every principle or doctrine 
contained in the book recommended. 



to?9y 



Copyright, 1894, 1898 
By Flood & Vincent 







TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 







*b\K 



The Chautauqua- Century Press, Meadville, Pa., U. S. A. 
Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by Flood & Vincent. 



2ru 



: J98. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER. PAGE. 

Introduction 9 

PART I.— THE FIRST REVOLUTION. 

Preliminary 17 

I. Europe under the Old Regime . 19 
II. The Revolution in France ... 31 

III. Napoleon Bonaparte 45 

IV. Results of the French Revolution 59 

PART II.— THE REACTION AND THE SECOND 
REVOLUTION. 

Preliminary 71 

V. The Congress of Vienna 72 

VI. The Reign of Metternich .... 80 
VII. The Orleans Monarchy and the 

Second French Republic ... 90 
VIII. Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight in 

Germany 101 

IX. Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight in 

Austria no 

X. Disunited Italy 118 

XL Reaction in Italy and France . .127 

PART III.— THE THIRD REVOLUTION— RE- 
CONSTRUCTION OF CENTRAL EUROPE. 

Preliminary 135 

XII. The Second Empire in France . . 137 

XIII. United Germany 146 

XIV. United Italy 157 



IV 



Contents. 



CHAPTER. PAGE. 

XV. Reformed Austria 167 

XVI. France as It Is 176 

XVII. The Triple Alliance 190 

PART IV.— THE BRITISH EMPIRE— RECON- 
STRUCTION WITHOUT REVOLUTION. 

Preliminary 201 

XVIII. The British People in Eighteen 

Hundred Fifteen 204 

XIX. The Beginning of Reform . . . .210 

XX. The Progress of Reform .... 219 

XXI. The Irish Question 228 

PART V.— THE RECONSTRUCTION OF 
EASTERN EUROPE. 

Preliminary 239 

XXII. Russia 240 

XXIII. The Empire of the Turks .... 251 

XXIV. The Expulsion of the Turks from 

Europe 259 

XXV. The Eastern Question 268 

PART VI.— THE MINOR POWERS. 

Preliminary 283 

XXVI. The Small Central States . . . 284 
XXVII. Northmen and Southrons .... 293 

PART VII.— TO-DAY. 

Preliminary 305 

XXVIII. Progress of the World 307 

XXIX. Progress of the World (Con.) . . 316 

XXX. Questions of the Day 324 

Bibliography 335 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

William Ewart Gladstone Frontispiece 

Page 

Central Europe in 1789 16 

The "Ancien Regime" 21 

The Cathedral at Cologne 25 

The Cathedral at Milan 28 

Louis XVI 31 

Officer of Infantry, 1789 33 

Marie Antoinette 38 

Robespierre 39 

French Grenadier, 1795 41 

French Infantry Soldier, 1799 42 

Napoleon Bonaparte 44 

French General 47 

Silhouette of Napoleon 48 

Josephine 50 

French Military Eagle 52 

Maria Louisa 55 

Central and Western Europe in 1812 56 

The Kremlin Palace, Napoleon's Headquarters at Moscow 57 

Arch of Triumph, Paris 60 

Arms of France — The Restoration 64 

Mirabeau 67 

Column Vendome, Paris 68 

Central and Western Europe in 1815 70 

Talleyrand 73 

Prussian Royal Mausoleum at Charlottenburg. Queen 

Louise and King Frederick William III 77 

Court Dress 82 

Louis XVIII. in the Tuileries (1814) S6 

Tomb of Napoleon, Hotel des Invalides, Paris 94 

Thiers as a Soldier of the National Guard 98 

Louis Kossuth 11 1 

Church of St. Mark, Venice 119 

The Nineteenth Cent'ry 128 



vi Illustrations. 



Napoleon III 138 

Costumes, 1855 139 

Europe in 1871 145 

Bismarck 148 

Europe in 1866 151 

William I., German Emperor 152 

Moltke 155 

Cavour 158 

Mazzini 159 

Victor Emmanuel 160 

Garibaldi 163 

Italy 165 

Austria-Hungary 167 

Francis Joseph 169 

Thiers 176 

The H6tel de Ville, Paris 177 

Gambetta 178 

Marshal MacMahon 179 

Eugdnie 181 

M. GreVy 182 

Sadi-Carnot 183 

Jules Ferry 184 

Casimir-P£rier 185 

Francois Felix Faure 187 

Heidelberg 193 

The Houses of Parliament, Berlin 195 

Trinity College, Cambridge 203 

Wellington 211 

The Noble Peer 221 

Salisbury 235 

Rosebery 236 

Russia 240 

Alexander III 243 

Nicholas II 248 

Bulgarian National Costume 256 

Modern Greece 260 

Turkish Empire before the Treaty of San Stefano .... 269 

Eastern Europe as Regulated by the Treaty of San Stefano 274 

Beaconsfield 275 

Victoria 276 

George 1 27Q 



Illustrations. vii 



A Modern War Cruiser 282 

Switzerland 284 

Belgium 290 

Leopold II 291 

Norway and Sweden 297 

Denmark 298 



Oscar II. 



299 



Emilio Castelar 302 

Spain 303 

Europe To-day 306 

First Railway Passenger Train, Liverpool and Manchester 

Railway 318 

William II., German Emperor 325 

A Modern Locomotive 332 



EUROPE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The nineteenth century is on the whole the most 
brilliant in the history of human achievement. Other The Nineteenth 

. . Century. 

ages excel in some things. The fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries disclosed the real geography of the western 
continent. There has been but one Shakspere, but one 
Raphael, but one Protestant Reformation. The English 
constitution, in its Magna Charta and Bill of Rights, gave 
the world the years 12 15 and 1688. And yet no equal 
period of time has been so crowded with great deeds as 
has been this busy age in which we live. It is the pur- 
pose of the pages which follow to tell briefly the story of 
those deeds, and at the same time to attempt the group- 
ing of them in such way as to show the underlying 
thought. Because, after all, the deepest interest of his- 
tory is not the mere sequence of events, dramatic and 
picturesque as that may be, so much as penetrating to 
the heart of things and learning what it all means. 

The distinction between political and other social 
matters is not always easy to make. Still in general p^acttcaTLife. 
we may say that politics relates to government, while 
there are many activities of men in society which have 
either no bearing, or at least only an indirect bearing, 
on those functions which we commonly regard as gov- 
ernmental. As most people are absorbed in these other 
activities, which usually are the means of livelihood, it 
follows that men generally are apt to pay little attention 
to politics. Political reform, therefore, usually has in 
view some practical considerations. Taxes are felt to be 



IO 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Politics and 
Race Dis- 
tinctions. 



The Formative 
Ideas. 



The Political 
People. 



Oligarchy and 
Democracy. 



too heavy, or to be inequitably imposed, privileges are 
granted to some classes and denied to others, individual 
liberty is in some way curtailed — for these or similar 
reasons the attention of men is directed to politics as a 
necessary condition of betterment, and there result great 
political movements, which sometimes end in revolution. 

Besides these practical motives, there are various 
sentimental considerations which powerfully influence 
political action. The ties of blood are strong. Race 
jealousies are keen. And no efforts of masses of men 
are more energetic than those directed toward throwing 
off a foreign yoke. 

When interest and sentiment combine to the same 
end, then we have just the conditions for the most 
violent and far-reaching political convulsions. And the 
present century is filled with such movements. 

The political life of Europe in the last hundred years 
has been controlled by two formative ideas — democracy \ 
nationality. 

Society is always governed by a portion of it. This 
governing portion should be the most fit. It is, in fact, 
the strongest, mentally or physically. And this govern- 
ing portion of society we may call, for convenience, the 
political people. Children, lunatics, criminals, are not 
political people. Women usually are not. 

Now, if the political people in a nation are few, the 
government, whatever its form, rests on an oligarchy. 
If the political people are many, the nation is demo- 
cratic. And one striking form of progress in Europe 
in this century is the transference of power from the few 
to the many. In other words, as has been said, one 
formative idea of the age has been democracy. 

An oligarchy, if the members composing it are suffi- 
ciently wise and disinterested, might afford a very 



Introduction. 1 1 



excellent government for the nation at large. But the Misrule and 
trouble is that the ruling few are apt to manage affairs Revolution, 
largely for selfish ends. They forget that they are 
trustees of power for all. And so those outside ' ' the 
ring ". usually suffer. Sooner or later they are likely to 
realize the cause of their suffering, and to make an 
opposition which has generally ended the oligarchy. 

The advance of democracy in the nineteenth century 
is not an isolated fact in history. It is only a part of the ofthe e Semo- e ' 
irresistible sweep of modern civilization. In the Middle ment! m0ve ~ 
Ages there was a triple aristocracy which held most of 
the good things of life. There was a small oligarchy 
which monopolized learning, another group which 
managed religion, and a third which administered gov- 
ernment. The masses were left to ignorance, blind faith, 
and obedience. The democratic movement, which has 
so vastly elevated the character of civilization, invaded 
these three fields successively. First, the monopoly of 
intellect was broken down. That was the Renaissance. 
And as learning became diffused it was enormously 
stimulated. Then with the weapons of quickened in- 
tellect and added knowledge, the masses assailed the 
oligarchy of religious belief and polity. That was the 
Protestant Revolution. When freed from the fetters of 
ignorance and superstition, society then attacked the 
despotism of king and noble. And the result is the 
triumph of political democracy which we see in our own 
time. The social upheaval which set it in motion is 
called the French Revolution. The conditions were 
such that the movement took shape first in France. 
But the times were ripe in other lands, and so in one 
form or other, and to a varying extent, it has spread 
over all Europe. 

The other formative political idea of the age is that of 



12 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century, 



Nationality. 



Material 
Progress. 



nationality. People of the same race and language are 
likely to have strong attachments for one another, as 
well as common ideas and feelings. Hence community 
of race is generally helpful in forming common political 
institutions. But political unity of those of the same 
race is a rather recent thing in Europe. In the con- 
fusion of the Middle Ages there could hardly be said 
to be nations, in the modern sense. The territory of 
Europe was occupied by a medley of races, and was 
divided by the feudal system into a multitude of more 
or less independent portions. Peculiar circumstances 
served to weld together the different stocks that made 
their home in France, and so produced the French 
nation. The same was true of Spain, and of a few other 
lands. But, on the other hand, in some countries, like 
Austria, people of a great variety of race and speech 
were gathered under one government and have never 
amalgamated at all. And again, people of the same 
blood, like the Germans and the Italians, were divided 
into a cluster of governments, mutually jealous, and 
sometimes quite as hostile to one another as to foreign- 
ers. But a keener national consciousness has been one 
product of our century. And that has led to the union 
of several of these scattered and subject peoples. United 
Germany and united Italy and free Hungary and free 
states along the lower Danube, are the creation of very 
recent years. At the same time the centrifugal force 
of diverse nationalities makes the cohesion of composite 
states like Austria-Hungary perilously weak. 

But progress in material things has been as marked a 
feature of our century as have been its great political 
changes. Men have won a mastery over the forces 
of nature that has produced marvelous consequences. 
Comfort has been increased. Wealth has been multi- 



Introduction. 1 3 



plied. It has also largely changed its form. Once 
mainly in land, it is now chiefly in personal property. 
In the factory, one man can now do with accuracy and 
rapidity what once consumed much time and required 
many hands. By the new means of transmitting intelli- 
gence and transporting persons and property, the whole 
world has been drawn nearer together. Knowledge has 
been put in easy reach of the masses. Society has been 
rearranged. Ease of movement has led to migration at 
all points. Old cities have become crowded, and new 
ones have sprung up like magic. Vast industrial changes 
have altered the balance of social classes. The wage- 
workers have risen in importance. All this has strength- 
ened the democratic tendency of political life. 

Of course there are other and darker effects of the _,___. 

The Modern 

material development of the age. While wealth has Proletariat, 
been created beyond the fondest dreams of avarice, its 
distribution has been capriciously irregular. The mil- 
lionaire and the pauper are the twin blooms of our 
civilization. Festering masses of poverty and misery 
are part of all great cities. The despotic king and the 
feudal lord will soon be little more than a memory. But 
the tramp and the criminal we have not yet abolished. 
Finally, the nineteenth century has witnessed Euro- 

..... The Conques 

pean civilization going out to possess the whole world, of the World. 
Millions have emigrated to North and South America, 
thus serving to swell the population and multiply the 
resources of the republics of the New World. Asia is 
now largely a possession of two or three European 
powers. Africa is no longer the ' ' dark continent, 
but is dominated by the nations of Europe, and is 
rapidly yielding to those greatest of all civilizers, the 
railroad and the telegraph. Even the islands of the 
South Seas, so long the home of picturesque and brutal 



H 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The Interest 
of America. 



Revolution. 



The three 

revolutionary 

movements. 



savagery, are the spoil of Aryan colonization. What- 
ever the motive of conquering nations, and whatever the 
opposition of sentimentalists, the simple, irresistible fact 
is, that the world belongs to civilization. 

We in America are no longer the isolated people 
whom Jefferson dreamed of keeping in Chinese seclu- 
sion. The nations are closely drawn together in our 
day, with many ideas and interests in common. The 
United States is a tangle of races. While the English 
form of our institutions will doubtless persist, still with 
us English ideas are not exclusive. The experience of 
the continent of Europe with the problems which confront 
us is of no small value. Aside from the mere interest of 
the spectacle, we need for our own sakes a comparative 
study of the achievements and mistakes of those nations. 

The political progress of Europe in the nineteenth 
century has been effected in general by a series of revo- 
lutions. Revolution implies the violent subversion of a 
state of things, and may take one of two forms — domes- 
tic insurrection or foreign conquest. On the Continent 
it has had both of these forms. In Great Britain the 
process has been peaceful and constitutional, although 
the results have been revolutionary. 

The revolutionary movement on the Continent has 
consisted of three distinct waves, with two intervals of 
reaction intervening. It would perhaps be convenient 
to speak of these waves as three revolutions, always 
understanding, of course, that they are parts of one and 
the same general series of events. Each has had its 
own characteristics, resulting from the nature and fate 
of the revolution preceding, and from the peculiar form 
assumed by the reactionary period. 

The first revolution began with the meeting of the 
States-General of France, in 1789, and ended with the 



Introduction. 15 



downfall of Napoleon, in 1815. It was first an insur- 
rection of the French people against their government, revolution. 
and later a great series of inter-European wars. This 
is commonly known as the French Revolution. It 
failed in many of its aims, yet it had lasting and impor- 
tant effects, not on France alone, but on all Europe. 

The second revolution was the general popular insur- 
rection of 1848, in which reactionary governments were 
overthrown in nearly all central Europe. This was revolution, 
combined with a few international wars intended to 
secure race union and independence. While some per- 
manent results were attained, yet the movement, on the 
whole, was a disastrous failure. 

The third revolution has been rather a series of revo- 
lutions, in which international wars have played a - prom- 
inent part. Taught by previous failures, the actors revolution, 
have been more reasonable in their designs and more 
practical in their means, and the achievements have been 
very great. Not merely has the map of Europe been 
reconstructed, but a large degree of constitutional free- 
dom has been won in lands once dominated by the most 
dreary absolutism. This has been carried so far that 
on the Continent, as well as in the British Islands, 
democracy may hereafter win battles by ballots rather 
than by bullets — by reason rather than by blows. 

In Great Britain the democratic movement was re- 

. The democratic 

tarded by the trench Revolution. But when the night- movement in 



mare fear of Napoleon had once passed away from 
the English mind, the reform was soon set in motion 
and has proceeded since by a series of constitutional 
changes and legislative enactments which have trans- 
formed the kingdom, but which are yet by no means 
complete. In the east of Europe, even the huge ice- 
berg of Russia is apparently beginning to melt. 



Great Britain. 



PART I.-THE FIRST REVOLUTION. 



PRELIMINARY. 
The revolutions which have altered the face of society 

J Changes politi- 

in Europe have been both political and social. Forms cai and social, 
of government have been changed. The relations of 
social classes have been readjusted. Economic and 
legal conditions have been reconstructed. 

Society in the latter part of the eighteenth century 
was a series of privileged classes beneath which were 
the unprivileged masses. Many of the privileges legally 
enjoyed were grossly unjust. Many were merely vex- 
atious. But all were the sustenance of a spirit of 
arrogance and insolence in those above, which in turn 
generated animosity, as well as indignation, among 
those below. 

There was no nation in Europe more intelligent and Revolution be- 
sensitive than the French. Their government and gin 
social system were not the worst on the Continent. 
But they realized wrongs more keenly, and resented 
them more bitterly than others. The movement for 
reform, therefore, began in France, and was French 
through the whole first period. Soon falling from the 
hands of moderate leaders, it was carried forward by 
a fanatical democracy which involved all the world 
in turmoil. Then followed a series of wars to which 
history affords no parallel. The military spirit ab- 
sorbed Europe for a quarter century. At the end of 
this time reaction had apparently conquered. But in 



1 8 Preliminary. 

truth society was vitally and permanently changed. 
This whole series of events we call the French Revo- 
lution. 



CHAPTER I. 

EUROPE UNDER THE OLD REGIME. 

Before the French Revolution turned the ancient oid Europe, 
society topsy-turvy, Europe seemed much like an ivy- 
grown feudal castle, in which a few modern ideas had 
entered. There were tall towers and picturesque battle- 
ments. There were crumbling ruins in some parts, 
haunted by bats and owls. There were stately rooms 
which were dark and damp and unwholesome. There 
were others of new fashion, airy, light, well drained. 
There were gloomy dungeons underneath, in which 
prisoners were chained and went mad. Some people 
loved the dark and the bats and the bad drainage, and 
furiously resisted reform as mere sacrilege. Others 
wanted to give the old structure modern conditions of 
health and comfort. But the reformers were few, and 
the conservatives controlled the sentries and the dun- 
geons. 

The map showed international political conditions A political 
which already seem ancient. Poland was an independ- crazy quilt " 
ent kingdom about as large as the Austrian dominions. 
Denmark and Norway were one monarchy. Turkey 
still had in its grasp the fairest lands of the southeast. 
Central Europe was a crazy quilt with independent and 
semi-independent states, large and small. There was 
no Italy. There was no Germany. The Holy Roman 
Empire extended its venerable shadow from the Mediter- 
ranean to the Baltic. 

The general character of government on the Conti- 



20 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



nent was autocratic monarchy, supported by a privileged 
nobility and a wealthy, established church. Beneath all 
were the unprivileged masses, whose chief functions in 
the state were to pay taxes, to fill the armies, and to obey. 
England, to be sure, had free institutions. But her 
Parliament in both houses meant merely the landed aris- 
tocracy. Politically speaking, England was an oli- 
garchy. 

The leading nation in political and social influence was 

France. undoubtedly France. The reign of Louis XIV., to be 

sure, had sown the seeds of the evils of which the Reign 
of Terror was the crop. At the same time, notwith- 
standing all its errors and disasters, this long reign had 
won for France a commanding position in diplomacy, in 
arms, and in the arts of civilized life. And not all the 
follies of the succeeding years had sufficed to forfeit this 
leadership. 

The French government was, in theory, the absolute 

Government. monarchy. Legislation was simply the edicts of the 
king, decided in the councils of ministers and duly reg- 
istered in the Parliament of Paris, or in such other parlia- 
ment as might be concerned. Of course the special 
form which laws assumed depended largely on the ad- 
vice of councilors, especially under a monarch whose 
personality was not strong. The parliament, which 
was a mere law court, could, and occasionally did, delay 
legislation by remonstrating against registering an ob- 
noxious measure. But the crown could always compel 
registration, nevertheless, so that the delay was not a 
veto. It meant merely an opportunity for royal recon- 
sideration. 

The administrative system was an elaborate compli- 

Administration. cation of historic feudal forms largely shorn of power, 
and the centralized organization which had been built up 



Europe Under the Old Regime. 



21 



tinder Louis XIY. The whole kingdom was divided 
into thirty-two territories, over each of which was placed 
a royal intendant. He was a lawyer, and was merely the 
agent of the royal councils. But his power was supreme 
overall branches of administration within the limits of his 
district. The historic provinces remained, and in each 
was a royal governor. He was always a great noble, but 
his actual powers had nearly all passed away. And in the 
minor administrative divisions there was this same con- 
fusion of ancient authority which retained little more than 
the form, while real authority was in some other official. 

The two bulwarks of monarchy in France were the The 
nobility and the Church. 

The noblesse were not 
numerous. It has been 
estimated that they com- 
prised 30,000 families. 
Another conjecture put 
them at 100,000 per- 
sons. And the rest of 
the nation was upwards 
of 25,000,000. The 
growth of the crown had 
long since deprived the 
nobles of the feudal au- 
thority to govern. But 
they retained many priv- 
ileges before the law — 
privileges which made 
the aristocrats vigor- 
ously hated by nearly 
everybody else. 

In the first place, the 

nobles Owned a good The "Ancien Regime. 




22 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Privileges. 
Lowell, 195. 



Lowell, 195. 



" Aristocracy 
has three ages: 
first, the age of 
force s from 
which it degen- 
erates into the 
age of privilege, 
and is extin- 
guished, finally, 
in the age of 
vanity." Chat- 
eaubriand. 



share of the best lands. This in itself could cause only 
envy. But they also had a claim of some sort on other 
lands. The peasant usually had to pay his lord a ground 
tax. If he sold his farm, he paid the lord a mutation tax, 
amounting sometimes to one sixth the price. Then the 
farmer's grain could be ground only in the lord's mill, 
bread must be baked in the lord's oven, the grapes must 
go to the lord's wine press. Often a fixed number of 
days' labor must be rendered on the lord's land. 

Besides these taxes, monopolies, and servile require- 
ments, the noble had other rights which were vexatious. 
He could pursue wild game even across the growing 
crop of the farmer, regardless of the ruin thus wrought. 
And all this game, however noxious, was sacred from 
the peasant. To kill it was a crime severely punished 
by the lord's bailiff. 

In other places, on certain nights in the year, the 
peasants were obliged to beat the water in the castle 
ditch to keep the frogs quiet. 

And the exemptions of the aristocrats were as keenly 
felt. They were free from the land tax, and from a great 
part of other taxes. They were exempt from militia 
duty. And besides this, they had a monopoly, again, 
of official positions in the army, in the navy, and at 
court. 

With all these burdens which the nobles imposed on 
the peasants, there were felt few or no corresponding 
benefits. In their feudal origin, each tax, each monop- 
oly, each exemption, had had a justifiable reason. But 
the reasons had long since disappeared, while the impo- 
sition remained. The nobles, like Irish landlords of a 
later day, were absentees from their estates, squandering 
in sumptuous living at court the income wrung by the 
bailiff from the toil and penury of the peasant. More- 



Europe Under the Old Regime. 23 

over, the laborer was stung by the marvelous arrogance 
of the aristocrats. The canaille were held as a lower 
order of beasts. It was Foulon, who, when told that 
the poor had no food, exclaimed, " Let them eat hay! " 
And these insults were matter of course. With all this 
it was felt that the noble did nothing for the general wel- 
fare. On the whole, he pretty well answered the defini- 
tion of a gentleman— " one who eats more than he 
earns. ' ' 

The Church was a state within the State. Established The Church, 
by law, it tolerated no sects. It owned a large amount 
of the best land, variously estimated at from one fifth to 
one fourth of the soil of France. It was exempt from 
most of the direct taxes, although the clergy were ac- 
customed in their assemblies to vote the king what they 
called a "free gift." There were upwards of 100,000 
in France vowed to religion, both regular and secular. 
This ecclesiastical army was maintained by the income 
from Church estates, by tithes, and by various fees and 
gratuities. The proceeds of the estates have been esti- 
mated at 124,000,000 livres (about $49,600,000) a year, 
and the tithes at an equal amount. This income was 
ample, but it was not equitably divided. It was largely 
absorbed by the great prelates, usually of noble family, 
who lived luxuriously, while the parish priest worked 
hard and was poor. So there was a division in feeling 
among the clergy. The prelates sympathized with the 
aristocrats in the state, and the humble cur£, or vicar, 
with the plain people. 

Beneath the two great privileged classes was the The Third Es _ 
"third estate," in other words, the common people, 
about 98 per cent of the nation. 

What we should call the ' ' middle class, ' ' lawyers, 
merchants, and the like, dwelt mainly in the cities. 



tate. 



24 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

They were often organized in gilds, which had their 
corporate privileges and exemptions. They were de- 
spised by the nobles and hated by the poor. 

And then below all else was the proletariat. The 
peasants were not perhaps in all respects so wretched as 
The tame (land has generally been held. Still they were taxed more in 
them fdl it h ad proportion than was just. They were harassed and 
foiThf 'tween- angered by feudal arrogance. They were subject to the 
Vii r ie 2S 48 T ° cque " corvee — -the compulsory levy to labor for the government 
or for the nobles. They were conscripted into the mili- 
tary service. And in the cities were the sullen masses 
of rags and misery from which were recruited the Jaco- 
bin mobs of 1792. 

Through the eighteenth century a new philosophy had 
losophy. been growing up in France. There were too many in- 

telligent and quick-witted people for the established 
order to win general respect. Voltaire, with his keen 
satire and pitiless logic, had assailed almost all existing 
institutions. And his views won their way because the 
evils which he attacked were obvious. There had come 
to be a general skepticism as to religion; and the State 
was no better than the Church. Many of the nobles 
sympathized with the popular view, and joined eagerly 
in speculations which tended ultimately to undermine 
crown and Church and aristocracy alike. 

The general picture of society in France, then, was of 
a government complicated, clumsy, and inefficient, of 
other social institutions full of inequality and injustice, 
of exclusive privileges belonging by law to the few, and 
of the heaviest burdens resting on those least able to 
bear them. The prevailing tone of thought was skepti- 
cal and destructive; and between the classes and the 
masses there was arrogant contempt on the one side, and 
vigorous hate on the other. 



26 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

The Holy Ro= One of the most majestic survivals of feudal Europe 
man Empire. wag ^q Holy Roman Empire. This comprised the 
German lands, Belgium (then known as the Austrian 
Netherlands), and some of the various Slavonic 
dependencies of the House of Hapsburg. It was in 
theory the successor of the old Roman Empire of the 
west, and had been, in fact, as near an approach to a 
united German nation as history had yet afforded. But, 
unlike France, it was only a loose federation of practi- 
cally independent governments. The leading powers 
were Austria and Prussia, and there was a host of petty 
states. There were two hundred principalities, some 
of which were ecclesiastical, fifty imperial cities, and 
several hundred independent knights. Each of these 
last was sovereign in his domains, with perhaps three or 
four hundred subjects. But grotesque as it seems, these 
Lilliputian knightly monarchs ranked on a par with 
kings. One of them, whose dominions comprised a 
single farm, happening to receive a call from Frederick 
the Great, met the king with open arms, exclaiming, 
"Welcome, my brother." The sovereign count of 
Leimburg-Styrum-Wilhelmsdorf had a standing army of 
hussars, consisting of one colonel, nine lower officers, 
and two privates. The count published a court gazette 
and maintained an order of nobility. Lichtenstein was 
a constitutional monarchy. Its contingent in the armies 
of the confederation was fifty-five men. 

The Diet was only the ghost of a legislative body. It 
had little real power, as the various states of the Con- 
federation acted in foreign and domestic relations with 
entire independence. And so, naturally, deliberations 
were apt to be wasted on trivialities, such as ' ' whether 
Bryce, 356. the envoys of princes should have chairs of red cloth 

(cloth like those of electors) or less honorable green; 



Baring-Gould, 



The Diet. 



Europe Under the Old Regime. 27 

whether they should be served on gold or 011 silver; 
how many hawthorn boughs should be hung before the 
door of each on May Day." And when a matter of im- 
portance came before them, their debates were dread- 
fully prolix. In 1792, at the time of the French in- 
vasion, the Diet deliberated four weeks before calling out 
the forces of the federation, and five months before 
declaring war. 

The head of the Confederation was the emperor, 
chosen for life by the electors. He had little real 
power. Beyond the august title, and the munificent 
salary of about $5,000 a year, he was an imperial 
shadow. 

Since 1438, the electors had uniformly given their suf- 
frages to the head of the House of Hapsburg (the Arch- 
duke of Austria). This family had acquired a great 
variety of dominions, over which it reigned with absolute 
authority. The shorter title of the head of the house 
was, ' ' King of Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia, Slavonia, 
Galicia; Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Transyl- 
vania; Duke of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola; Princely 
Count of Hapsburg and Tyrol." And the Archduke of 
Austria reigned also in Milan and Brussels. 

In these motley lands there were eleven languages 
spoken. There were some 10,000,000 Slavs, 5,000,000 
Germans, and 3,000,000 Magyars, besides Italians, 
Flemings, Frenchmen, and Gypsies. 

It is obvious that Austria was not a German power, as 
its main interests lay among other races. The govern- 
ment, in all its lands alike, was an absolute despotism. 
But two powers were recognized — monarch and priest. 
The Hapsburgs were a Roman Catholic house, and 
so gathered around them the Catholic states of South 
Germany. 



28 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Prussia. 



In North Germany lay the Protestant military king- 
dom of Frederick the Great, Prussia. The neighboring 
Protestant German states usually followed Prussian lead. 
Thus Austria and Prussia were leaders of two rival 
parties. But in the Confederation there was no national 
German feeling. Mutual jealousy and religious ani- 
mosity sharply divided the various states. Napoleon 
afterward had no difficulty in attaching to France the 





V s 



The Cathedral at Milan. 



German lands near the Rhine. That seemed to them 
quite as natural as union with Prussia or Austria. 

And in all Germany the feudal system remained hrmlv 
established. Serfage had not yet disappeared. The 
noble owned the peasants on his estates about as he 
did his cattle. And there was no intellectual ferment 
portending change, as there was in France. The Ger- 
man mind seemed hopelesslv sluggish. 



Europe Under the Old Regime. 29 

Italy was " merely a geographical expression." The Italy, 
peninsula was divided as thoroughly as was Germany, 
and there was no national Italian feeling whatever. The 
pope was a temporal sovereign, and not a good one. 
Venice and Genoa yet preserved the memory of their 
venerable republican glories. Piedmont and the Two 
Sicilies were independent kingdoms. Lombardy be- 
longed to Austria; Tuscany, Modena, and Parma were 
independent states ; and in all the rule was merely abso- 
lute despotism, qualified here and there, as at Florence, 
by some gleams of enlightenment; but united Italy was 
yet hardly a dream. 

Holland behind its dikes and Switzerland among the Republics. 
Alps still preserved their liberties; but the Dutch stadt- 
holder was at the head of a federation of aristocratic 
commonwealths, and the Swiss were a loose league with- 
out any cohesive government. 

England had through long centuries created popular En ] nd 
institutions which are now the basis of free governments 
the world around. But England in 1789 sadly needed 
reform; it was really ruled by an oligarchy of noble 
families. The House of Commons was no longer repre- 
sentative of the nation at large, but through the working 
of the rotten boroughs was a mere appanage of the 
wealthy landowners. Bribery and office jobbing were 
matters of course. Protestant intolerance was about 
as strong as was Roman Catholic intolerance on the 
Continent. Still, there was no serfage. Free speech 
was sustained; government was not a despotism. There 
were liberties of Englishmen which did not exist for 
Frenchmen or Austrians; and so on the whole England 
was politically the most advanced nation of Europe. 

The international policy under the old regime was 
wholly selfish. Each continental nation was looking 



30 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

eagerly for chances to add to its territory at the expense 
of its neighbors. Everywhere on the Continent was the 
absolute monarchy, everywhere the privileged aristoc- 
feanlres racy and the privileged Church. The masses had no 

political rights. Taxes were unfairly distributed, so 
that the poor paid the most. The noble squandered 
in riotous living the sums wrung from the hard labor 
and the penury of the peasants on his estate ; and these 
peasants were virtually or actually serfs. 

Meanwhile new ideas were stirring in France. A 
new school of thought was teaching that men ought not 
to be slaves, that gross inequalities of rights and for- 
tune were wrong, and that fraternity was better than 
class hatred. 

SUMMARY. 

The general character of government on the Continent was 
autocratic monarchy supported by a privileged nobility and a 
wealthy, established Church. 

France was the leading nation in social and political influ- 
ence. Its government was an absolute monarchy based on 
the centralized administration of Louis XIV. Its bulwarks 
were the nobility and the Church, who owned much of the 
best land, which was exempt from taxation. The nobles and 
clergy had many privileges and exercised many vexatious 
rights over the peasants. The third estate comprised the 
middle classes of the towns and the proletariat. The pre- 
vailing tone of thought was skeptical. 

The Holy Roman Empire was a feudal survival. Since 
1438 the head of the House of Hapsburg had been chosen 
emperor. In his dominions eleven languages were spoken 
and his interests were primarily non-German. Throughout 
Germany the feudal system still survived. 

Italy was merely a geographical expression. 

England had free institutions and an oligarchic government. 
Politically it was the most advanced nation in Europe. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE. 

At the beginning' of 17S9, the royal treasury 
of France had for years been bankrupt. Expenditure 
chronically overran income. The court would not spend 
less; taxes could not be made to yield more. No 
one knew just how 
the accounts stood, 
and no one knew 
how to solve the 
puzzle. 

It was then, as a 
last resort, that, for 
the first time since 
1 6 14, the States- 
General were sum- 
moned. This body 
was the ancient feu- 
dal assembly of the 
members or repre- 
sentatives of the 
three estates of the 
realm — nobles, 
clergy, commons. 
And now it was 
hoped that their collective wisdom and generosity might 
help the crown out of its difficulties. It was also in- 
tended that this solemn assembly should give advice 
toward renovating the clumsy and inefficient structure of 




Louis XVI. 

King of France. Born, 1754. 
Antoinette, 1770. King, 1774. 
21, 1793- 



Married Marie 
Guillotined, Jan. 



The States- 
General. 



32 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



May 5, 1789. 



At most the 
privileged or- 
ders were not 
more than 500,- 
000 as against 
25,000,000. 



Oath in the Ten- 
nis Court, June 
20, 1789. 



The National 
Assembly. 



government. Thus it was a true constitutional conven- 
tion. 

The estates met in the great hall of the palace at 
Versailles, on the fifth of May. At the stately cere- 
monies of opening the august meeting, the commons 
in plain attire sat modestly behind the nobles and priests. 
But as soon as business was opened, it appeared that 
these simple lawyers and merchants were in no humble 
mood. The ancient custom had been for votes to be 
taken in the estates separately. In this way a combina- 
tion of the two privileged orders would hold the ' ' third 
estate," the commoners, utterly helpless. But the 
deputies of the third estate were as many as those of 
both the others combined, and they insisted that votes 
should be given in a combined meeting of all. As the 
aristocrats and churchmen were only a small minority of 
the whole nation, this proposition would seem sufficiently 
modest to our modern eyes. But it caused a deadlock 
which for several weeks prevented any business. 

At last the third estate, joined by some liberal nobles 
and priests, voted that they were themselves the National 
Assembly of the French people, and that they would at 
once proceed in "the work of national regeneration." 
At this the crown sided with the privileged orders 
and closed the doors of the hall at Versailles in the face of 
the commons. But the deputies were not overawed. 
Gathering in a tennis court near by, they took together a 
solemn oath that the Assembly ' ' would never separate 
till it had set the constitution on a sure foundation." 
And the oath was kept. 

Alarmed by the aggressive energy of the third estate, 
the crown and the other orders yielded, and the 
National Assembly, no longer the States-General, pro- 
ceeded to business. The revolution was beeain. 



The Revolution in France. 



33 



Constitution of 

1790-1. 



There were already two serious portents. The court July 14, 17S9. 
was uneasy and began to devise expedients for getting 
back into its bottle this genie it had let loose. And the 
mob began to stir in the streets of Paris. When mili- 
tary movements made it plain that the king had sinister 
plans, the popular excitement broke out in rioting. The 
French Guards joined the people, and finally the mob 
rose and stormed the Bastille, the ancient fortress and 
political prison which had been built to dominate Paris. 
This was the first triumph of lawless violence. It was a 
baleful omen of anarchy to come. 

The National Assembly, meanwhile, labored hard at 
the knotty question of finance, and set out on the great 
and difficult task of reform in the government. 
The beginning was a complete abolition of all 
the long list of feudal customs and privileges. 
Then followed a series of measures of recon- 
struction. Hereditary offices and titles were 
done away. Church tithes were abolished. 
The land and other property of the Church 
were confiscated, and the clergy, to be elected 
by their flocks, were paid from the public 
treasury. Religious toleration was ordained. 
The historic provinces disappeared from the 
map, and all France was divided into depart- 
ments approximately equal in area and popu- 
lation. The crown was retained, but it was 
shorn of most of its power. Legislation was 
vested in a supreme assembly of a single cham- 
ber, chosen directly by popular vote. Cen- 
tralized administration was destroyed, and the 
largest local autonomy put in its place. 

All these and many more changes made 
France a limited monarchy, more advanced officer of infantry. 1789. 




34 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The flight to 
Yarennes. 



Legislative 
Assembly, 1791. 



The Gironde. 



The Jacobins. 



The Revolu- 
tionary wars 
bea;un. 



and systematic than the England of 1791 , but by no 
means socialistic or anarchistic. 

The National Assembly voted that none of its members 
should be eligible to the new Assembly, and then ad- 
journed without day. This vote was intended to be a 
noble measure of self-denial. It proved very unwise. 

But ugly events had been happening. The king had 
sworn to uphold the constitution, though he abhorred 
it. And presently it appeared that he was plotting to 
flee from the kingdom, with his family, and secure 
foreign help to restore the absolute throne. The flight 
was attempted, but the fugitives were arrested at the 
village of Varennes and brought back to Paris, and then 
men began to believe that Louis could not be trusted. 

The Legislative Assembly, in accordance with the new 
constitution, was duly chosen, and met in October. By 
the unfortunate "self-denying ordinance," no men who 
had acquired legislative experience were among its 
members. There were 750 deputies, divided into three 
parties, the Conservatives, the Radicals, and the Moder- 
ates. The leaders were a cluster of eloquent and able 
men, called, from their department, the Girondists. The 
Radicals were the organs of a new political force — the 
Jacobin clubs. These clubs were composed of fanatics 
who would destroy without mercy in order to set up 
their new democratic theories, and in their nightly meet- 
ings they harangued themselves into a high pitch of 
frenzy which one day was to carry away the very 
foundations of orderly society. 

It was not many months before the new Assembly had 
a serious question to face. The monarchs and feudal 
aristocrats of Europe had looked on with great dissatis- 
faction at the ominous changes in France. There was 
no telling how far such monstrous ideas of liberty and 



The Revolution in France. 35 

equality might spread. These feelings were fostered by 
the French nobles, who had left their native land in 
crowds and swarmed at every European court, detailing 
to sympathizing ears the wrongs heaped on sacred privi- 
lege by the irreverent third estate. These and other 
considerations led to measures on the part of the Em- 
peror Leopold, brother of Queen Marie Antoinette, which 
could easily be construed as hostile. The pride and 
independent feeling of the French were aroused. They 
suspected a league of kings in behalf of Louis, and this 
was met promptly by a declaration of war against Aus- 
tria. Prussia followed its ally, and thus was kindled a Apri1, I792 - 
conflagration which raged for nearly a quarter century. 

The French at first met nothing but reverses, and 
by midsummer two great armies, attended by crowds of 
exulting hnigres, were invading France, proclaiming 
their design to free Louis from the duress in which 
he was kept and to restore his rebellious subjects to their 
allegiance. And the king showed that his sympathies 
were with the invaders rather than with France. He 
used his veto power to paralyze measures of the As- 
sembly, and insisted on a reactionary ministry. 

But now the storm burst. The Paris mob, never 
satisfied by what it deemed the half measures of the 
Revolution, and frenzied by the approach of hostile 
armies and the apparent treason of crown and nobles, 

_ ( August 10, 1792. 

rose against the king. The palace of the Tuileries was 
seized. The Swiss Guards of Louis stood bravely to 
their post, and were cut down to a man. Then the 
furious mass of wretches from the garrets and cellars and 
the dens of prostitution poured through the glorious Sack of the 
rooms, and soon the priceless works of art and the 
sumptuous furniture were torn in pieces and utterly 
destroved. Under stress of the excitement, the Radicals 



36 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Deposition of 
the King. 



Massacres of 

September, 

1792. 



About 1,400 
were thus 
murdered. 



The Con- 
vention. 



The first re- 
public, Sept. 
1792. 



prevailed in the Assembly. It was decreed that the king- 
was deposed, and that a National Convention should 
be elected to take action in the emergency. The royal 
family were confined in the temple. The Bourbon mon- 
archy was doomed. 

The mob had learned its power; it had stormed the 
Bastille in 1789; it had repeatedly intimidated govern- 
ment; it had now worked its will in the royal palace. It 
was the most fiendish mob spirit which in September 
rushed from prison to prison, took out the political 
prisoners who had been arrested on various pretexts, and 
slaughtered them in cold blood. The carnage raged un- 
checked for several days. At the same time mansions 
and churches were plundered. All the worst passions 
were let loose. Paris was a veritable hell on earth, 
and the authorities of the capital were guilty of com- 
plicity in it all. 

It was just after these scenes of horror that the 
new Convention met. The Girondist Moderates still 
had a majority, though on the whole the Radicals 
were stronger than in the Assembly. The treachery 
of the court had sunk deep into the minds of more 
than the extreme fanatics, and it was decided that the 
king must be tried. The monarchy was abolished and 
France proclaimed a republic. And in return for the in- 
solent interference of foreign nations in the domestic 
affairs of France, the Convention proclaimed that France 
would carry liberty to all nations. ' ' The rights of 
man" was the war cry of a new crusade. 

The unfortunate king was tried, not by a high court 
of justice, as was Charles I. of England, but by the. 
Convention itself. Of course the trial was a political 
one, and the fiercest passions were aroused. The 
Girondists wished to save Louis, but the Jacobins carried 



The Revolution in France. 37 

their point, and he was found guilty and condemned to 

death, by a majority of one vote. And in January, 1793, The execution 

this descendant of St. Louis, of Henry of Navarre, and ja n th * k |"f;. 

of the Grand Monarque, was led to the scaffold, and his 

head fell like that of a common malefactor. 

Louis XVI. was perhaps weak rather than wicked. 
He never rose to the sublimity of falseness of the first 
Charles Stuart. But he could not be trusted, and his 
death was a sharp warning that the French people were 
in deadly earnest. 

The deposition and execution of the king alienated 
from the Revolution some who had been its leaders. 
Lafayette threw up his command in the army, and left 
the country. Dumouriez, who commanded in the north, 
tried to surrender his army to the allies, but succeeded 
only in himself escaping to the enemy. Battles and 
fortresses were lost, and only dissension among the 
allies kept the tide of invasion from rolling on Paris. 
Meanwhile England and Spain and, in short, nearly all 
Europe joined the coalition to put down French demo- 
crats and regicides. 

But to disaster and treason the Convention opposed 
an undaunted front. Moderation was overborne. Su- 
preme executive power was entrusted to a small com- 
mittee of the Convention, the Committee of Public committee of 
Safety. An extraordinary tribunal, soon to be famous as ApHi^y*^' 
the Revolutionary Tribunal, was constituted for the trial 
of political offenses. A levy en masse was decreed for 
the war, and the fury of faction soon overpowered the 
Girondists. The National Guards of Paris surrounded 
the Convention, and under the muzzles of their cannon 
the majority was obliged to yield. The Girondist leaders 
were arrested, and then, for the first time, the Jacobins triumph, June 

. 2. 1793- 

completely controlled the Revolution. 



38 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Their hold on the Convention was made sure by the 
arrest of nearly one hundred opposing deputies. The 
Jacobin Committee of Public Safety thereafter was a 
despotic authority, the Convention promptly registering- 
its every decree. And it proceeded with terrible energy 
on its double task of defending France against invasion 

and crushing all op- 
position to extreme 
democracy. 

The member of 
the committee who 
served as minister of 
war was Carnot. A 
sincere republican, 
he had no share in 
Jacobin atrocities, 
but devoted himself 
to organizing vic- 
tory. The levy en 
masse was vigor- 
ously enforced. The 
armies were recon- 
structed. Traitorous 
aristocratic officers 
were weeded out, 
and a thorough 
democratic system 
applied.* Then was 
years, under Napo- 




Marie Antoinette. 
Queen of France. Born, 1755. Daughter of the 
Empress Maria Theresa. Married Louis, Dau- 
phin of France, 1770. Guillotined, 1793. 

begun the system of which in after 



* "Almost all the leaders appointed by the Committee of Public Safety were 
soldiers who had served in the ranks. . . . Patriotism, energy of charac- 
ter, acquaintance with warfare, instantly brought men into prominence. 
Soldiers of the old army, like Massena, who had reached middle life with their 
knapsacks on their backs; lawyers, like the Breton Moreau; waiters at inns, 
like Murat, found themselves at the head of battalions, and knew that Car- 
not was ever watching for genius and ability to call it to the highest com- 
mands." — Fyffe, 1., 80. 



The Revolution in France. 



39 



leon, it was said that every private carried in his knap- 
sack a marshal's baton. At all points energy and 
genius took the place of irresolution and incapacity. 
And defeat was turned into victory. The allies, already 
discordant, were driven from France. The French 
armies invaded and conquered the Netherlands. The 
coalition was dis- 
solved. Prussia and 
Spain made peace 
with these terrible 
democrats. England 
and Austria were left 
as the only enemies 
of the republic. 

The Committee of 
Public Safety at the 
same time was de- 
stroying the aristo- 
crats at home. The 
guillotine was busy 
in Paris and through- 
out France. No life 
was safe, for, with 
the Revolutionary 
Tribunal, suspicion 
was usually equiva- 
lent to proof of guilt. 
Arbitrary laws ground the rich with taxes. The accus- 
tomed rules of society were overturned. Dress and 
manners were changed, and the calendar was altered. 
Religion and morality went down in the wreck, and 
France for a full year was suffering from a nightmare 
of horrors. 

Events swept on. The fiends in the Committee of 




Robespierre. 
om, 1758. Elected to States-General, 17S9. 
Radical democrat. Deputy from Paris to Con- 
vention, 1792. Chief of the Mountain. Presi- 
dent of Committee of Public Safety during Reign 
of Terror. Guillotined, 1794. 



The Reign of 
Terror. 



40 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

Public Safety quarreled among themselves, and Robes- 
pierre, the ablest fanatic of them all, sent his rivals to 
the scaffold, and became for a few horrible months the 
virtual dictator of France. 

The despotism of the king had been displaced by the 
despotism of the mob. The cycle was complete, and 
the reaction was not long in coming. France had had a 

July, 1794- surfeit of horrors. The Republican armies had turned 

back the tide of invasion from the frontiers, and in 
the summer the Convention at last dared to resume 
authority. Robespierre and his satellites were arrested, 
and perished on the guillotine to which they had con- 
signed so many. The Jacobin clubs were put down ; the 
Revolutionary Tribunal was dissolved; and once more 
order and sanity were supreme. 

The Convention had proved a bad form of govern- 
ment. It was itself a relic of the Jacobin misrule, and a 
wiser system was needed. So a second constitution was 
devised, republican in form, but less liable to become the 
prey of popular frenzy. A legislature of two chambers 
was to be chosen, the Council of Five Hundred, and 
the Council of Ancients. The two councils were to 

Repubiic Utional choose a Directory of five as the executive authority, 
which was to be independent of the legislature in admin- 
istration. But to insure the perpetuity of republican 
rule, two thirds of the first legislature should consist 
of members of the Convention. Thereafter one director 
and a third of the legislature were to be renewed each 
year. 

The provision for retaining members of the Conven- 
tion aroused the anger of the Royalists in Paris, who 
since the fall of the Jacobins had again become strong. 
Insurrection was attempted, but the troops of the Con- 
vention, led by General Bonaparte, mowed down the 



Constitution of 
'795. 



October, 1795. 



77/<? Revolution in France. 



4* 



insurgents with grape shot. The new constitution was 
secure and was promptly put in operation. 

Thus the constitutional monarchy of 1791, which was 
the first political form of the Revolution, was replaced 
by a constitutional republic. But France had learned 
a new dread. In 1789 it was the despotic king and 
the haughty, privileged orders who seemed the enemies 
of "the rights of man." In 1795 society shuddered 
at the tyranny of the mob. The guillotine had proved 
more fearful than the Bastille. 

In the new Directory, Carnot continued to direct The Directory, 
war measures, and the first campaigns were brilliantly 
successful. The young general, Napoleon Bonaparte, 
who had saved the Convention from the insurrection 
of October, was given command of the army of Italy. 
His material resources were slender, but his military 
genius was wonderful, and soon the world 
was ringing with his exploits. Successive 
armies of the Austrians he destroyed with 
greatly inferior forces. All Italy was overrun 
by the French, and the victorious tri-color 
was in full march for Vienna when the em- 
peror made submission. In the treaty of 
Campo Formio he surrendered Belgium and 
the Rhine frontier to France. The ancient 
Venetian republic was given to Austria in 
exchange. 

But military success abroad had not given 
stability to government at home. The elec- 
tions of 1797 had returned to the councils a 
majority of Constitutionalists and Royalists. 
They did not approve of Bonaparte's Italian 
policy, and had no sympathy with the ex- 
treme democrats who Still were at the head French Grenadier. 1795. 




4 2 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



Coup d'etat, 
Sept. 3, 1797. 




French Infantry Soldier. 
1799. 



of the administration. The majority of the Directory, 
in conjunction with Bonaparte, determined to control the 
councils. Violence had already availed in a similar 
emergency; and so it was the easier now to arrest and 
exile obnoxious deputies. The minorities of the coun- 
cils then proceeded to ratify the acts of the conspirators 
and to put them in firm control. 

It was the Jacobin mob that mastered the Convention 
in 1793. The coup d' 'ctat of 1797 was the first appear- 
ance of a new force in politics — the soldier. It was 
not the last. 

The war being closed on the Continent, 
Bonaparte, uneasy at the prospect of idleness, 
readily obtained from the Directory permission 
to make a military expedition to Egypt. The 
immediate object was to attack the British 
possessions in India, though Bonaparte had 
vast schemes of Oriental dominion floating in 
his brain. But no sooner were the French 
troops landed than their return to France was 
cut off by the battle of the Nile, in which the 
English admiral, Nelson, utterly destroyed the 
French fleet. So for a year Bonaparte disap- 
peared from France ; and affairs did not go well 
in his absence. The relentless hostility and 
abundant wealth of England served to form a 
second coalition of European powers against 
the French Republicans; and in nearly every 
quarter the allies were successful. It seemed 
as if the victories of Bonaparte had been in 
vain. The Directory was assailed on all sides. 
It annulled the adverse elections of 1798, only 
to see an overwhelming majority returned 
in 1799. At this juncture Bonaparte, leaving 



The Revolution in France. 43 

his army in Egypt, returned to France. His plans of 
conquest had been foiled in Syria, and he saw his op- 
portunity in the political dissensions at home. He was 
received with enthusiasm, as the hope of the armies, 
and found the time ripe for revolution. His plans were 
soon formed. Securing the command of the troops in 
Paris, and the aid of two of the directors, he proceeded 
to subvert the government. His friends in the Direc- 
tory resigned, the remaining directors were arrested, coup d'etat of 
the Council of Ancients was docile, the Council of Five Nov°g e °7Qg 
Hundred was turned out of doors at the point of the 
bayonet. Bonaparte was now the master of France. 
In ten short years France had run through the cycle 
of politics which in ancient Rome had taken centuries. 
Monarchy had been overthrown, the republic had been 
created, had proven weak, and now was in the grasp of 
the military chief. Caesar was on the republican throne. 

SUMMARY. 

The States-General were summoned in 1789 because France 
was bankrupt. The third estate declared itself the National 
Assembly of France and abolished feudalism, confiscated the 
Church lands, decreed religious toleration, reorganized the 
administration, and framed a constitution. 

The Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria. The 
king showing that his sympathies were with the invaders of 
France, the monarchy was overthrown, the republic estab- 
lished, and the revolutionary propaganda began. 

The Radical element dominated. The Committee of Public 
Safety and the Revolutionary Tribunal ushered in the Terror. 

The victories of the Republican armies gave the Conven- 
tion courage to resume its authority. 

The constitution of 1795 reorganized the government under 
a Directory of five members. By a coup a" Hat, Bonaparte 
expelled the opponents of the Directory from the councils. 
The Egyptian campaign failing, he returned to France, over- 
threw the government, and established the Consulate. 




Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Born in Corsica, August 15, 1769. Educated for army. General in Italy, 1796. 
Egypt, 1798. First Consul, 1799. Emperor, 1804. Abdicated, 1814. Exiled to 
Elba., Abdicated second time, 1815. Exiled to St. Helena. Died, May 5, 1821. 



CHAPTER III. 

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Bonaparte was born in Corsica, and was but thirty- 
years of age when he ascended the consular throne. 
His military and administrative genius has never been 
surpassed. His industry was unwearied, his ambition 
boundless. Familiar with the history of great soldiers 
who have become great monarchs, at an early date he 
set before himself Caesar and Cromwell as his models. 
No scruples stood in the way of success. He marched 
to a political goal as pitilessly as he crushed hostile 
armies in battle. But while he was above all a soldier, 
he was distinctively a soldier of the Revolution. He 
hated feudal aristocrats, and scorned the inequality and 
feebleness of feudal monarchies. Order, precision, sym- 
metry, were his passion in the State, just as these were 
the cardinal qualities of his victorious armies. And in 
this strong and purposeful hand were now all the re- 
sources of France. 

The constitution* which France received as the fruit of constitution 
Bonaparte's coup d' Hat, the third organic law in ten ofl ?99- 
years, did not provide for a constitutional monarchy, 

*"A system of centralization came into force with which France under her 
kings had nothing to compare . . . where, under the constitution of 1791, a 
body of local representatives had met to conduct the business of the depart- 
ment, there was now a Prefet, appointed by the First Consul ; absolute, like the 
First Consul himself, and assisted only by the advice of a nominated council, 
which met for one fortnight in the year. In subordination to the Prefet, an offi- 
cer and similar council transacted the local business of the arrondissement. 
Even the 40,000 maires with their communal councils were all appointed directly 
or indirectly by the chief of the State. There existed in France no authority 
that could repair a village bridge or light the streets of a town, but such as 
owed its appointment to the central government. Nor was the power of the 
First Consul limited to administration. With the exception of the lowest and 
highest members of the judicature, he nominated all judges, and transferred 
them at his pleasure to inferior or superior posts." — Fyffe, I., 207-8. 

45 



46 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

like that of 179 1, or for a constitutional republic, like 
that of 1795. This was autocracy, pure and simple, 
though more or less veiled under apparently popular 
forms. Laws were to be drafted by a Council of State, 
discussed by a second body, the Tribunate, which could 
not vote, and voted by a Legislative Assembly which 
could not discuss. But back of all was the initiative 
of the First Consul, without which no project of law 
could be drawn. The direction of administration and 
the whole appointing power were in the same hands. 
The executive consisted nominally of three consuls, but 
the second and third were merely the clerks of Bona- 
parte, whose modest republican title of First Consul 
thinly concealed an actual monarchy. The people were 
to choose 500,000 notables, and these were to elect the 
Tribunate, Senate, and legislative body. The adminis- 
trative system was made a simple hierarchy depending 
on the head of the State. 

But more important than constitutions was the rolling 
back of the tide of invasion which on all sides threat- 
ened the integrity of the republic. The resources of 
France, wielded by the strong hand of Bonaparte, were 
May, 1S00. quickly put into military form. Two great armies took 

the field, one under Moreau on the Rhine, a second 
under the First Consul, designed for Italy. In the spring, 
Bonaparte crossed the Alps swiftly and unexpectedly, 
cut off the Austrians from their base at Mantua, and in 
the battle of Marengo shattered his enemies beyond 
June 14, isoc re pair. Moreau, meanwhile, had crossed the Rhine, 
and finally, in the early winter, crushed the army op- 
Dec. 3,1800. posed to him at Hohenlinden, and moved directly on 
Treat -of Lune- Vienna. Austria then submitted to make peace without 
viiie, Feb., 1801. th e concurrence of Great Britain. Germany west of 
the Rhine was formallv ceded to France. And a year 



Napoleon Bonaparte. 



47 



Treaty of 
Amiens, Mch.. 
1802. 



Government 
systematized. 



later England also put an end to hostilities. For the 
first time in nine years Europe was at peace. The 
pretext for war on the part of the allies was substantially 
gone. To be sure, the Bourbons were not restored to 
their throne. But France had passed from the control 
of the incendiary Jacobins, and seemed once more to 
have a settled government which was not a menace to 
other nations. 

To complete the organization of that governmental 
system was the first care of Bonaparte when the war 
closed. The disordered finances were put on a sound 
basis, so that the nation became solvent. The adminis- 
trative system received that centralized form which it 
has in all essentials retained to this day. The consti- 
tution of 1 791 certainly went too far in the direction 
of local autonomy. The choice by the people of their 
own department prefet and council would not 
seem to us dangerous, being quite like the 
election of our state governor and legislature. 
But the National Assembly had made even 
the judiciary and the officers of the National 
Guard elective. Moreover, local independ- 
ence proved an inefficient system for a great 
military nation, such as France had become. 
The change to a centralized system was a 
great gain in efficiency, and has seemed to 
suit the French genius. 

Another great work of the First Consul was 
the codification of the laws. Nothing could 
well be more confusing than the tangle of 
customs and legislation which in huge bulk 
had formed the laws of royal France. The 
plans projected in the early years of the 
Revolution were now carried out bv a com- French General. 




4« 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



The Codes. 



The Concordat. 



Civil constitu- 
tion of the 
clergy. 



Fyffe, I. 

Note. 







Silhouette of 
Napoleon. 



mission of lawyers, under the presidency of the First 
Consul, and the admirable Codes were formed which 
have given such simplicity and system to French sub- 
stantive law and procedure. They will commemorate 
the name of Napoleon when his battles are forgotten. 
An object which Bonaparte deemed of first impor- 
tance was the reconciliation of France with the 
Church. While the skeptical philosopy prevailed with 
the Revolution, yet at no time had the Christian Church 
been officially abolished. True, during the Terror 
Christianity was formally proclaimed a base superstition, 
but yet the civil constitution of the clergy was never 
repealed. This act of the National Assembly provided 
that pastors and bishops should be chosen by their 
flocks, with the approval of the government, required 
all incumbents of benefices to take the oath of allegi- 
ance to the republic, and provided for clerical 
salaries from the national treasury. This scheme 
made the freely elected clergy officials of the State, 
and cut loose the Church of France from papal 
control. Of course the pope bitterly opposed such 
a policy, and large numbers of priests refused to 
take the oath. Meanwhile monasteries and nun- 
neries were abolished. 

Napoleon desired a reunion of the French Church 
with the general body of papal Christianity. He 
felt that this would secure him the active support 
of the priesthood, always powerful in France with 
women and peasants. By the terms of the agree- 
ment with the pope, all the sees were filled with 
nominees of the head of the State, subject to papal 
consecration. Priests received their appointment 
from the bishops with the approval of the head of 
the State. And the general toleration of all forms 



Napoleon Bonaparte. 49 

of religion was replaced by the restoration of the Cath- 
olic Church to its former place as the established religion 
of the nation. 

The Concordat apparently reversed the revolutionary 
tendency toward atheism. In the end it destroyed the 
ancient independence of the Gallican Church, and made 
the French clergy thoroughly ultramontane. 

The peace between France and England lasted one The wars re- 
year. In 1803 the flames of war again broke out, not to 
cease now till Bonaparte had placed the Continent at his 
feet, and finally in turn had been crushed by the alliance 
of all Europe against France alone. 

As a result of the peace of Luneville, France had ex- 
tended her territory to the Rhine. Holland, Switzerland, 
and northern Italy shortly were organized in strict de- 
pendence on their great neighbor, so that the First 
Consul had a cordon of vassal states on all sides but France made 
the west. In Germany, most important rearrangements continent. 
were made under French influence. Bavaria, Baden, 
Wurtemberg, and other smaller lands, were materially 
strengthened and closely allied with France. This they 
gladly did. There was no German national feeling, and 
western Germany was more jealous of Prussia and Aus- 
tria than of France. The ecclesiastical states, most of 
the free cities, and many of the imperial knights, were 
deprived of their independence. Thus France was 
greatly strengthened. 

All these movements excited suspicion in England, 
and presently that country declined to surrender Malta England 
until better assured of the pacific intentions of France. 
This was violently resented by Bonaparte, and in May, 
1803, the two nations resumed the struggle of arms. The camp at 

Bonaparte's first plan was to invade England. To 
that end he gathered at Boulogne a magnificent army, 



5o 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century, 



1804-5. 



The Empire. 



and made elaborate preparations for transporting it 
across the Channel. Could he only get control of the 
narrow seas for twenty-four hours, he felt sure of landing 
a force which would easily prove irresistible. But the 
English navy was invincible. All attempts at concentra- 
ting the scattered French squadrons were balked. 
England was as safe as if she were in the moon. And 
English money was soon able to raise another coalition 

on the Continent 
against the trouble- 
some French. Rus- 
sia and Austria 
agreed to put huge 
armies in the field, 
and England was to 
pay the bills. 

In the meantime 
the French Repub- 
lic had passed away. 
The consulate was 
virtually a mon- 
archy, though the 
term of the executive 
was fixed at ten 
years. But as the 
power of Napoleon 

Josephine. became Consoli- 

Marie Joseph Rose Tascherde la Pagerie. Born, dated, as his bril- 

1763, in Martinique. Married Viscount de Beau- .. . . . 

harnais. He was guillotined, 1794. Josephine liant Victories in war 
was in prison, and was saved only by the fall of • i_ 1 

Robespierre. Married Napoleon Bonaparte, again Drought tO 

1796. Divorced, 1809. Died, 1814. -r, . , 

r ranee peace with 
honor," as his equally brilliant victories in the reor- 
ganization of society restored order and security, it 
was not difficult for the French people to be persuaded 




Napoleon Bonaparte. 51 

that the future would be best assured by making- the 
authority of Napoleon permanent. The Bourbons were 
not wanted. The name of king was hated in France as 
once it had become in ancient Rome. And so, follow- 
ing the policy of the Roman Caesars, Napoleon became May is, 1804. 
Emperor of the French, with hereditary title to the 
imperial crown. The organization of government was 
not materially changed. 

The example of France was followed three months 
later by Austria. The Emperor Francis assumed the 
title of Emperor of all his Austrian dominions. His 
hold of the old German imperial title was slipping away, 
and the new one was devised as a substitute. 

In 180s the Austrian armies invaded Bavaria, mov- The Austrian 

_ Invasion. 

ing in a leisurely way through that country to the 
borders of Wurtemberg. Here the commanding gen- 
eral, Mack, proposed to wait for the arrival of the 
Russian forces, when it was intended to invade France. 

But in these deliberate movements the allies seemed 
to forget that they were dealing with Napoleon Bona- 
parte. When it was clear that the crossing of the Chan- 
nel was hopeless, and that Russia and Austria were 
moving to the attack, Napoleon instantly broke up 
his cantonments at Boulogne and moved his army 
rapidly and with the utmost secrecy toward Bavaria. 
Before Mack realized that he was in danger he was 
enveloped at Ulm by overwhelming numbers, and, Surrender of 
dazed by the catastrophe which had befallen him, he 
surrendered his entire army without striking a blow. 

Napoleon at once pushed on and occupied Vienna 
without opposition. But the retreating Austrians united 
with the Russians in Moravia, and thus were able to 
oppose the French with superior numbers. Napoleon 
met them at Austerlitz on a bright winter day, and in ^so? 1 * 2 ' De °' 



52 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Federation of 
the Rhine, and 
Dissolution of 
the Holy Ro- 
man Empire, 
1806. 



The Battle of 
Jena, 1806. 



Peace of 

Tilsit, 1807. 



one of the most brilliant of his battles broke the allied 
armies to fragments. Austria was compelled to make 
peace, surrendering large territories to the conquerors. 
Napoleon's allies, the electors of Bavaria and Wiir- 
temberg, with much new land received the title of King. 
Napoleon now began to extend the power of his 
family. His brother Joseph became King of Naples, and 
another brother, Louis, King of Holland. Napoleon had 
himself already been crowned King of Italy. Western 
Germany was united into a federation under the pro- 
tection of France. Thus was finally dissolved the vener- 
able Roman Empire. Francis formally renounced the 
title in August, 1806. 

Prussia had vacillated during the campaign of 1805, 
finally deciding against war when Napoleon was victori- 
ous. But in 1806 the kingdom was goaded into war, 
and was almost instantly crushed by Napoleon. The 
Prussian army was destroyed, and the dominions of 
Frederick William were overrun and conquered. In 
Prussian Poland the French again met the Russians 
in two bloody battles, and then the war came to an end. 
Napoleon and Alexander made not only 
peace but alliance with each other. Na- 
poleon was to be master in central and 
western Europe, Alexander in the east. 

Napoleon was now at the height of his 
power. He was an emperor in a very true 
sense. Not merely did he reign in France 
and northern Italy, but in southern Italy 
and in Holland his brothers ruled vassal 
kingdoms. Western Germany was a 
dependency. Austria and Prussia were 
humbled. The nations of the Continent 
were united against England alone, and 




French Military Eagle. 



Napoleon Bonaparte. 53 

were compelled to carry out Napoleon's policy of TheConti- 
ceasing" to trade with that pugnacious island. He hoped nen a ys ' 
thus to ruin the commercial nation which he could not 
reach with his invincible armies. And the territory 
which had been annexed to France, as well as that 
which was ruled under dependent governments, was not 
worse off on the whole for the French conquest. Or- 
derly and efficient administration replaced clumsy and 
corrupt feudal methods. Law was uniform and just, 
taxation equal, class privilege abolished. Had Napo- 
leon been content to stop at this point, his empire might 
have been permanent. 

But the great soldier now entered on a policy of 
aggression which seemed to point toward universal 
empire, and which in the end was fatal to Napoleon and 
to France. 

Spain lagged behind the rest of Europe in point of Spain . 
progress. Since the days of Philip II., the once great 
nation had steadily decayed. The Bourbon dynasty 
which had reigned since 1703 had become personally 
contemptible. Half-witted monarchs, bigoted priests, 
the Inquisition, unjust feudal privilege, all these are what 
reigned south of the Pyrenees. But if Louis the Great 
could give Spain a French medieval monarch, why could 
not Napoleon the Great, through his family, rule the 
Iberian peninsula with the modern ideas of the demo- 
cratic empire ? And not only would this policy aggran- 
dize France, but it would close to English trade the last 
■continental port. And so Napoleon entered on the 
Spanish policy which in the end subverted his throne. 

Shrewd intrigue induced the feeble king of Spain, rgog 
Charles IV., and the crown prince, Ferdinand, both to 
abdicate their rights to the Spanish crown. A meeting 
•of prelates and grandees, nominally the estates of Spain, 



54 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The Portuguese 
royal family 
abandoned Lis- 
bon and took 
refuge in Brazil, 
thus making the 
beginning of the 
independent 
Brazilian Em- 
pire. 



See Wolfe's 
poem , "The 
Burial of Sir 
John Moore." 



Wagram, July 
5-6, 1S09. 



Marriage of 
Napoleon and 
Maria Louisa, 
1S10. 



was then convened at Bayonne, and by them Joseph 
Bonaparte, King of Naples, was duly elected King of 
Spain. And French armies were already in possession 
of the kingdom, having occupied Portugal in the interest 
of the continental system. 

But the Spanish people rose against the French in- 
vaders on all sides. It was not a war of governments 
and armies, but simply a popular insurrection. In some 
quarters the French were defeated and compelled to 
surrender. On all sides they were beset by a fierce and 
fanatical peasantry, aroused to frenzy by the village 
priests. And the rising was aided by an English army 
which had landed at Lisbon. Napoleon took the field 
in person, and wherever he appeared the insurrection 
melted away. An English column under Sir John 
Moore was chased to the coast and driven on shipboard 
at Coruna. 

But the condition of Germany called the emperor 
from Spain, and he was obliged to leave its affairs to 
his marshals. Austria had again taken up arms. 
The Austrian court apprehended that as soon as Spain 
should be conquered Napoleon would renew aggressions 
toward the east, and so aimed to anticipate him. War 
began in the spring of 1809. 

Napoleon promptly assailed the Austrian armies, and 
by his superior tactics drove them back on Vienna, and 
for a second time occupied that capital. In July he 
defeated the combined forces of Austria in the bloody 
battle of Wagram, and again was in a position to dictate 
the terms of peace. 

These terms took a new direction. Napoleon felt 
acutely the necessity of having an heir to perpetuate his 
dynasty. For that reason he divorced his childless 
wife, Josephine, and contracted marriage with the Aus- 



Napoleon Bonaparte. 



55 



trian archduchess, Maria Louisa. Thus the Corsican 
adventurer became allied with the proudest reigning 
house in Europe. 

The area of the French Empire now reached its great- 
est extent. Napo- 
leon annexed the 




The Russian 
war. 



*mf 






papal states in Italy, 
Holland, the Valais, 
and the north Ger- 
man coast as far as 
Liibeck. 

But alliance with 
Austria meant a 
breach with Russia. 
In 1811 Alexander 
renounced the con- 
tinental system, and 
Napoleon prepared 
for war. His grand 
army of invasion in- 
cluded detachments 
from all the depend- 
ent states, as well as 
from Prussia and 
Austria. In the 
summer of 181 2, a 
half million men un- 
der the French em- 
peror moved into Russia. The army of Alexander BaU i eo f Bo ro- 
was defeated at Borodino, and Moscow was occupied. <g"°/ Sept - 7i 
But this ancient city was the high-water mark of French 
invasion. No sooner were the French in possession 
than flames broke out on all sides. The city was burnt 
to ashes, the invaders were confronted with a Rus- 



■* 



% 



V 



■'Jr**, * ~ <3k 



&\ 



Maria Louisa. 
Empress of the French. Born, 1 791. Married to 
Napoleon, 1810. Duchess of Parma, 1816. 
Died, 1847. 



56 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



sian winter without shelter, and the loss of the capital 
produced no effect on the tsar. Retreat was inevitable, 
and the grand army, ragged, starved, harassed by Cos- 
sacks, frozen by the early winter storms, struggled back 
for 600 miles "toward Germany. The mere fragments 







'c*"'*i >•-. of >y» r 

CoiirediTation , — ,. «M V 

MIl^ AUSTRIAN 




«._£3 



that escaped were the wreck of the splendid hosts of inva- 
sion. The grand army was destroyed. 

And now Europe rose in arms against its conqueror. 
Prussia joined Russia in February, 18 13, and began 
with fervor the German national war of liberation. In 
March, Sweden joined the allies. Napoleon gathered 
new armies and struck his usual rapid and heavy blows. 
Austria now offered to mediate, and in the summer a 
congress of the powers was held at Prague. Napoleon 
would concede nothing, however, and so nothing was 
accomplished. In September, Austria turned against 
Napoleon, and in October Bavaria did the same. The 
terrible battle of Leipzig was a victory for the allies, and 
zig^Oct., 1813. at once Napoleon's German dependencies crumbled 



Napoleon Bonaparte. 



57 



away from him. The Confederation of the Rhine was 
dissolved, and Holland revolted. Then, in the first 
month of 1814, Denmark was compelled to give its 
adhesion to the general cause, and Napoleon's empire 
tottered to its foundations. The French kingdom in 
Spain had been overthrown by the aid of a liberating 




The Kremlin Palace, Napoleon's Headquarters at Moscow. 



army under Wellesley (afterwards Duke of Wellington), 
and France was invaded at all points. Never did the 
genius of Napoleon shine more brilliantly than in that 
last despairing campaign in France. But Paris was 
taken by the allies, and the French emperor, hemmed 
in on all sides by overwhelming armies, was compelled Abdicat i on 
to abdicate his throne. He was given the island of A f pdfi° le isi4. 
Elba, in the Mediterranean, as a home. And the Bour- 
bon king, Louis XVIII., brother of Louis XVI., found 
himself once more on the throne of his ancestors. 



58 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Battle of 
Waterloo, 
June 15, 1815. 



Death of 
Napoleon, 
May 5, 1821. 



A year later, while the allies were solemnly wrangling 
at Vienna over the disposal of the spoils, Napoleon sud- 
denly returned from Elba, and his mere presence top- 
pled over the Bourbon kingdom. The war was at once 
renewed. But Napoleon's army was crushed utterly in 
Belgium by Wellington and Bliicher, and the empire 
finally fell. Louis XVIII. came back to Paris, and this 
time Napoleon was sent to St. Helena, in the south 
Atlantic, and held closely guarded. There the great 
emperor fretted his life away. He died a half dozen 
years later, and at the news the monarchs of Europe 
were relieved from a nightmare. The mere name of 
Napoleon was a dread to them. 



SUMMARY. 

The government established by the constitution of 1799 was 
an autocracy. The First Consul was a real monarch on whom 
the whole administrative system centered. 

Bonaparte's military genius brought victory to France and 
peace to Europe. He then devoted himself to the develop- 
ment of the government and the codification of the laws. He 
effected a reconciliation with the pope, and made Catholicism 
the established religion. 

In 1803 war again broke out, and in 1804 the First Consul 
became emperor. 

After Ulm and Austerlitz, the Federation of the Rhine sup- 
planted the Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon sought to con- 
quer England by the Continental System. He entered upon 
the Spanish project, which finally overthrew him. His alliance 
with Austria led to a break with Russia. In the Russian 
campaign of 181 2, the Grand Army was destroyed. Then the 
German war of liberation began. Napoleon's dependencies 
deserted him, Paris was captured, and the emperor abdicated. 
After a few months at Elba, he returned to France and to 
Waterloo. 



CHAPTER IV. 

RESULTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 

With the overthrow and exile of Napoleon, the old 
Bourbon dynasty returned to the throne of France. It 
was a million foreign bayonets, and not the voice of 
the French people, that restored Louis XVIII. In 
other words, it was the triumph of " legitimate royalty " 
over the upstart desires of a nation. And the nobles 
who had for a quarter of a century been lurking in 
foreign lands or serving against France in foreign armies, 
now trooped back to their own; and their own re- 
ceived them not. The old regime was gone forever. 
The Revolution had altered the face of society in France, 
and the Bourbons, who ' ' learned nothing and forgot 
nothing, ' ' found themselves in a new world. 

For, in truth, the convulsions and horrors so promi- Tem 
nent on the pages of history were but the temporary 
incidents of the great Revolution. The movement for 
reform at its inception was, in the main, in the hands of 
prudent and high-minded men. It was its misfortune 
that the control of things slipped away from them and 
was grasped by the mob. The destruction of religion 
and education was only for a time, and Jacobin violence 
was in turn soon restrained by reason and law. But 
it was the deep dread caused by the Reign of Terror 
which made it easy for a strong man like Bonaparte to 
become absolute. He stood in the popular mind for 
order at home and victory abroad, and so seemed the 
protector of the salutary social revolution at once 
against anarchy and against subjugation. 



results. 



6o 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The international wars, which made the story of Eu- 
rope so bloody for a quarter century, were but the in- 
evitable commotion caused by so great a social upheaval. 
The settled order in other lands was shocked at what 
seemed a reversal in France of the natural order of things, 
and there was profound apprehension of the spread of 
dangerous ideas throughout Europe. The privileged 
orders regarded the revolutionists of 1789 about as mod- 




Arch ok Triumph, Paris. 
Commemorating the Victories of the Revolutionary Wars. 

ern society does the anarchists. And this dread was 
keenly stimulated by the international form which the 
revolutionary ideas took in 1792. In their enthusiasm 
for "the rights of man," and in their resentment at the 
coalition of kings against popular sovereignty, the French 
began a crusade of liberalism in all nations. And this 
seemed at the end of the eighteenth century about as a 
crusade of anarchy would at the end of the nineteenth. 



Results of the French Revolution. 61 



The jealousy of the ruling classes in England was no 
small factor in prolonging the wars. The ruling classes 
in that country were two — the aristocracy, who, in 
common with the nobles of the Continent, dreaded the 
leveling movement of French democracy, and the mer- 
chants, who were eager rivals of France in trade. We 
shall not understand the revolutionary wars in full, unless 
we realize that they were part of the hundred years and 
more of strife between the two nations for commercial 
and colonial superiority. In the Seven Years' War, 1756-63. 
England wrested from France the Dominion of Canada 
and India. France retaliated in the War of the Ameri- 1775-83- 
can Revolution by aiding the revolted colonies of Great 
Britain to cut loose from the mother country. And 
during the French revolutionary wars England con- 
quered European colonies in every sea, and fixed finally 
her maritime and commercial supremacy. 

Of course the ambition of Napoleon to dominate Eu- 
rope greatly widened the area of military action. And Am P biUon. s 
yet this ambition should not be conceived as a deliberate 
and prearranged scheme. English money bought 
continental coalitions against France. These the great 
soldier shattered again and again; and each time he 
enlarged his power and broadened his aims. His im- 
perial ideas were a growth of conditions many of which 
were forced upon him. 

The victory of Wellington at Waterloo was the 
triumph of medieval privilege over modern democracy. 
Of course the issues were complicated by the autocracy 
of Napoleon. Still, he was a democratic emperor. He 
rested for his title on popular suffrage, not on divine 
right, and his government meant equality before the law. 
Wellington stood for all the privileged classes — for 
hereditary monarchy — against the elevation of the 



62 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Permanent 
results. 



The Land. 



masses. He looked backward to the eighteenth cen- 
tury. Napoleon had his gaze on the twentieth. 

But the Reign of Terror and the wars, the empire of 
Napoleon and the crash of it at Waterloo, all these were 
mere transient and superficial incidents of the French 
Revolution. There were other results which were funda- 
mental and permanent. The restoration of the Bour- 
bons could not and did not materially affect these. And 
these results are the basis on which the structure of 
European society as it now exists has been erected. 

The changes in France naturally were more striking 
than elsewhere. And the most of them may be summed 
up in the one word, equality. The vicious character of 
eighteenth century society was more than anything else 
in its unjust discriminations; and all exclusive privilege 
was swept from the soil of France as by a flood. A 
quarter century since 1789 had seen a new generation 
grow up which never knew the exemptions and monopo- 
lies of the old noblesse. And they could not be re- 
stored. The Church, too, and the merchant gilds, had 
lost their special rights. All Frenchmen were equal 
before the law. 

Preferment in the civil service and in the army had 
too long been open to merit for a return to the old 
restriction to members of noble families. Massena, 
general of the republic and marshal of the empire, had 
been a private in the ranks. Murat, the incomparable 
leader of cavalry, marshal of France, and king of Naples, 
had been a waiter in an inn. The Gascon, Bernadotte, 
had become king of Sweden. And these cases were 
typical. The privilege of serving France in posts of 
honor belonged to all Frenchmen who could prove 
ability; and noble birth was no longer such proof. 

The vast body of land that formerly belonged to 



Results of the French Revolution. 63 

the Church and the nobles had been appropriated by 
the State and sold. The titles had passed through many 
hands since 1793, and it was obviously as impracticable 
to restore the soil to its original owners as it would have 
been to undo the confiscations of the first Frankish con- 
querors of Gaul. The Church, to be sure, had been 
compensated by making the salaries of the clergy a 
charge on the public treasury, thus converting the 
priests from a body of independent landholders into 
an army of state officials. But the soil now belonged to 
its cultivators. There was freedom of agrarian contract 
for all classes, and the practical effect had been greatly 
to intensify the tendency to the breaking up of large 
estates; small peasant holdings became common. 

No inequality of the old regime was more indefensible Equality of 
or more exasperating than the capricious incidence of Taxat,on - 
taxation. The exemptions which formerly belonged to 
the nobles and clergy had disappeared. Taxation was 
uniform throughout the nation, and it would have 
been as hopeless to attempt to bring back the old unjust 
system as it would be to essay the reconstruction of an 
extinct geologic age. 

The condition of the working classes had been sreatlv 1 a 

o J Improved con- 

improved; wages had been raised on the average, ditionofin- 

tr o s> ' dustnal classes. 

estimated in purchasing power, to some two or three 
times what they had been before the Revolution ; and in 
the country the peasants were now owners of the soil. 
The destruction of the old feudal restrictions and the 
equalization of taxation had given a better chance to the 
proverbial thrift of the French industrial masses, of 
which they had availed themselves eagerly and success- 
fully. Here was a vast social revolution in itself, and 
one that could not go backward. 

The revolutionary idea of equality was nowhere more 



system. 



64 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

The political strikingly evident than in the structure and working of 
the new government. The system evolved during the 
revolutionary epoch in its main features has been pre- 
served ever since, seeming well suited to the political 
genius of the French people. To be sure, popular self- 
government was no part of it. That is a refinement of 
freedom which any nation has to acquire slowly, and 
which France is only now beginning to enjoy. But the 
administrative system which grew from the Revolution, 
while as thoroughly centralized as was that of Louis 




Arms of France— The Restoration. 

XIV., was a very beautiful machine in its simplicity and 
symmetry. All the clumsy and irregular features of 
the old royal administration had been done away. 
The ancient provinces, glaringly unequal in area and 
population, and preserving in their names the historic 
diversity in origin of the French nation, had been 
abolished, and a new territorial division made into rela- 
tively uniform departments, named from rivers and 
mountains. Each department was divided into districts 
{arrondissements) . The only historic territorial unit that 
was left was the commune, which might indifferently be 



Results of the French Revolution. 



the largest city or the smallest country village. A cluster 
of adjacent communes forms a canton, and a group of 
cantons makes the arrondissement. The prefet (gov- 
ernor) of the department, as well as the sub-prefect of 
the district and the mayor of each commune, received 
appointment from the central government at Paris. 
The old idea of vested property interests in public office, 
so that one might buy and sell and inherit a judgeship, 
for instance, had disappeared; and all sinecure offices, so 
numerous under Louis XVI., had also been destroyed. 
An exact and uniform system of law courts had been 
created, with regular appeal to a supreme body at Paris; 
and the law administered had also been made equal. 
The tangle of customs and conflicting statutes which Legal reform- 
excited the derision of Voltaire had been replaced by 
the systematic Codes which made law the same every- 
where in France, and which at the same time made 
justice inexpensive and speedy. 

Besides these permanent changes in the social and other institu- 
political organization of France, changes on which a 
Bourbon restoration was merely superimposed, but 
which it did not vitally modify, the Revolution left 
certain institutions which had to be retained. The 
restored Church, under the Concordat of Napoleon and 
Pope Pius VII., was by no means the old Church of 
France. Its status has not been materially altered for 
better or worse, and it has been made simply more ultra- 
montane, rather than more national, by its dependence 
on the State. The University of France is the revolu- 
tionary idea of equality applied to education. It is 
merely the national system of education, from primary 
school to the most advanced original investigation, under 
State supervision and control. The Bank of France and 
the Legion of Honor are also revolutionary creations 



tions. 



66 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

which seemed to meet an actual need, and which accord- 
ingly still exist. 

Thus it will be seen that, as has been intimated, the 
whole structure of French society was radically altered 
by the Revolution. Old France was dead and buried 
and forgotten. And these emigre" nobles who came 
back with the Prussian and English armies were in 
truth only ghosts. They did not realize it for a time; 
they smirked and swaggered and plotted as if they had 
been real flesh and blood nineteenth century people. 
But 1830 and 1848 showed that they were shadows, not 
substance. 

Results outside The rest of Europe was also permanently affected by 
the Revolution, though of course not so deeply as 
France was. 
When the In the first place, considerable areas were for many 

coast was an- years annexed to France and shared in the benefits of 

nexed to France . , . , , _ , i-» 1 • 

in 1810, the de- systematic and equitable t rench government. Belgium 
free tenure of and Savoy and the Rhenish provinces witnessed the de- 
ated thirty-six struction of feudal inequalities and enjoyed the orderly 
feudal service workings of the Code Napoleon. And when they were 
Abolished with- torn from France at the general peace, it was not practi- 
sation ° m Fyffe, cable to put them back either under the old system, 
which had gone to decay, or even under the improved 
system which Prussia, for instance, had devised. The 
Code of France was better. And feudal rights once 
gone could never be reimposed. 

There were still other parts of Europe which had 
never been annexed to France, but which had been in 
political dependence upon Napoleon's empire. Such 
were the Rhenish Federation and the kingdom of Italy. 
In these countries the French system of government 
and French political ideas had largely been introduced, 
and they were always an improvement. The marks of 



i. 



Results of the French Revolution. 



67 



this relation with France have never been wholly effaced. 

Then the countries which met France in the shock of 
war and were overthrown quite largely reorganized their 
social system in consequence. In Germany the long 
list of ecclesiastical feudal barons, and a longer list of 
petty lay princelings and whimsical sovereign knights 
of the empire, lost their independent jurisdictions alto- 
gether. Thus the way was paved for a modern consol- 
idated political society — the German nation. Such a 
nation was impossible while Germany was a mere sur- 
vival from the dark ages of feudal particularism. 

Nowhere was the reconstruction of things greater than 
in Prussia. The bitter humiliation of that nation in the 
years from 1806 to 18 13 led to great reforms, which in 
turn made effective the patriotic fervor of the War of Lib- 
eration in 1 81 3-4. And 



out of all this Prussia 
became so distinctively 
German and so distinct- 
ively modern that in the 
fulness of time it was of 
necessity under Prussian 
leadership that German 
unity was wrought out. 
The armies which 
marched and remarched 
over the soil of Europe 
carried liberal ideas with 
them as birds do the 
seeds by which vege- 
tation is so widely dis- 
seminated. The French soldiers were missionaries of 
democracy wherever they went ; and even the armies 
which finally overthrew Napoleon and bivouacked in 




Born, 1749 
1789. " 
1791. 



Prussia. 



MlRABEAU. 

Delegate to States-General, 
President of National Assembly, 
Died, 1791. 



The armies. 



68 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Germany 
and Italv. 



Paris carried home with them new political thoughts, 
just as the French regiments in 1783 brought back with 
them republican ideas from America. This was the 

beginning of liberal- 
ism in Russia. 

Austria and Eng- 
land were least af- 
fected at the time. 
But both yielded ulti- 
mately to the demo- 
cratic forces which 
they thought they 
were destroying at 
Waterloo. 

Then, too, the 
whole movement was 
an object lesson of 
successful revolt to 
the oppressed masses 
in all lands ; and the 
lesson was not lost. 
Some peoples were 
rather slow in learn- 
ing it. But 1848 
showed that finally the 
idea had penetrated 
skulls which in 1789 
and even in 1 8 1 5 had 
seemed very thick. 
In two countries the stress of the revolutionary wars 
gave rise to a new idea, entirely aside from all questions 
of democracy and privilege — the idea of ethnic nation- 
ality. Germany and Italy were mere geographic ex- 
pressions when the century opened. The Bavarian 




Column Vendome, Paris. 
Made from cannon captured by Napoleon I. 



Results of the French Revolution. 69 

allied himself more readily with France than with Aus- 
tria, which he dreaded, or with Prussia, which he hated. 
And there was no such thing as an Italian. But the 
cruel suffering of war and revolution engendered national 
consciousness in those lands ; and this national con- 
sciousness in our own day has embodied itself in organic 
state forms —the German Empire and the kingdom of 
Italy. 

So the French Revolution was not crushed at Water- 

The Revolution 

loo ; it was not a failure. The empire of Napoleon fell ; Ilot crushed. 
but it was a new world at which the reactionary con- 
querors looked with blind eyes. 

SUMMARY. 

After the excesses of the Revolution, Napoleon repre- 
sented order. 

In the French revolutionary wars, England's colonial con- 
quests fixed finally her maritime and commercial supremacy. 

The changes in France may be summed up in the word 
equality. 

The land of the Church and the nobles had been sold and 
could not be restored. The soil now belonged to its culti- 
vators. 

The political system was reformed, taxation made uniform, 
property rights in public offices abolished, and the laws codi- 
fied. 

The dependencies of France and the countries conquered by 
her, especially Prussia, shared in the results of the era. 

The revolutionary wars aroused in Germany and Italy the 
idea of national unity. 




c ; 

- / 

----- 



FART Il-nr THE SE 

REVOLUTION". 

PRE! V 

.- \ - i 17S9 to 1815 F - 

the central fig 



•■ " . . . : Much 

lutio • tgh the era , 

gain beg 

there s se 

548 s 

is monop 

' , i Russ 

Tbes 
had etch its 

or democ 

- - e apts 






CHAPTER V. 

THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA. 

In the history of European diplomacy there are 
three memorable congresses. The first made the gen- 
eral Peace of Westphalia in 1648, settling the religious 
and political character of Germany till the French Rev- 
olution. The second was the Congress of Vienna in 
1814-15. The third met at Berlin in 1878, with refer- 
ence to the Eastern Question. 

When the armies of the allies triumphed over Napo- 
leon, in 1814, and his empire had fallen to pieces, the 
powers decided on a solemn conference which should 
rearrange on a firm basis the relations of the nations of 
Europe, so sadly unsettled by the Corsican adventurer. 
Accordingly in the autumn a brilliant concourse of 
monarchs and ministers and lackeys met in the capital 
of the Caesars. Their labors lasted from September, 
1 8 14, until June, 18 15, and the series of treaties there 
made formed the public law of Europe for nearly half a 
century. 

Either in person or by their representatives a hundred 
sovereigns were present — all Europe, in fact, except- 
ing Turkey. Metternich, the minister of the Austrian 
emperor, presided at the public sessions. Alexander of 
Russia, Frederick William of Prussia, the Emperor 
Francis, and the kings of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg, were 
present in person. Hardenberg and William von Hum- 
boldt assisted their royal master in Prussian interests, 
Metternich kept his keen eye on the welfare of the 

72 



The Congress of Vie?ina. 



73 



Austrian dominions, while Castlereagh and Wellington 
in turn acted for England. Talleyrand, having with his 
accustomed skill deserted Napoleon in the nick of time, 
appeared for Louis XVIII. and France. The first two 
months were devoted mainly to social functions of the most 
elaborate character. Receptions, dinners, and balls fol- 
lowed one another 
in rapid succession. 
It is estimated that 
$50,000 a day were 
spent in entertain- 
ment. And so little 
but revelry ap- 
peared above the 
surface that the gen- 
eral sentiment of 
Europe was well 
expressed in the 
French mot: "/,<* 
Congrcs danse bien, 
m ais ne marc he 
pas.'' 

The methods of 
business, in fact, 
were quite unlike 
what would be ex- 
pected of so im- 
pressive a gathering 
of the powers. The 
general sessions were very few and of no great moment. 
All important matters were settled by private nego- 
tiations of the four leading powers — the five, when 
France was admitted to a share; and to avoid any 
question of precedence, the documents in which agree- 




"The Con- 
gress dances 
well, but it 
doesn't march." 



Talleyrand. 
Born, 1754. Lame from infancy. Entered church. 
Bishop of Autun, 1788. Member States-Gen- 
eral, 1789. Joined Third Estate. Resigned 
bishopric, 1790. Exile in United States, 1793. 
Minister of Foreign Affairs in Directory, 1797-^ 
— under Napoleon, 1799-1807 — under Louis 
XVIII., 1814-15. Ambassador to England, 
1830. Died, 1838. 



74 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

ments were recorded were signed in the order of the 
French alphabet: Autriche, France, Grande Bretagne, 
Prusse, Russe. For special purposes the great powers 
were joined by Spain, Portugal, and Sweden; and for 
some questions, like that of German union, committees 
were appointed to confer and agree on preliminary plans. 

ideas. The Congress was of course the very embodiment 

of absolutism. It was met to destroy the ideas of the 
French Revolution forever, and, so far as practicable, 
to put Europe back where it was in 17S9. It was 
not practicable to do this wholly. Alexander prided 
himself just then on his liberal sentiments, and England, 
while in the hands of a Tory ministry, was yet a marvel- 
ously liberal country in comparison with the victorious 
Continent. A Russian Liberal and an English high Tory 
were not far apart. The influence of these two powers, 
together with the obvious impolicy of the contrary 
course, sufficed to retain in France many of the fruits 
of the Revolution. And the liberalizing process which 
had been applied to German and Italian territory could 
not be reversed. Every kinglet or baron who held in 
his grasp lands formerly ecclesiastical, for instance, had 
no notion of restitution. 

Disputes. Many of the questions to be settled related to the 

disposal of territory which had in some shape formed a 
part of Napoleon's empire. And of course the interests 
of different powers soon came in collision, so that for a 
time the peace of Europe was again in danger. 

Poland. The chief disputes were about Poland and Saxony. 

Alexander had a scheme of his own about Poland. 
The grand duchy of Warsaw, which had been created 
by Napoleon out of a fragment of the old Polish king- 
dom which he had conquered from Prussia and Austria, 
of course had been subjugated by the Russians when 



The Congress of Vienna. 75 



Saxony. 



Talleyrand. 



Napoleon was driven into Germany after his disastrous 
Moscow campaign. Now the tsar proposed to recon- 
stitute the kingdom of Poland, with himself as king, 
and with a liberal constitution. But this suited nobody 
else. Prussia and Austria both objected to Russian 
dominion thrust so deeply into their territory, and Eng- 
land strongly opposed any Russian aggrandizement. 

The king of Saxony had remained loyal to Napoleon 
to the last, and in consequence had been made prisoner 
and his country overrun. The tsar proposed to hand 
over the whole of this kingdom to Prussia, by way 
of compensation for Poland. And to this Frederick 
William was, on the whole, not disinclined. 

But Talleyrand was scheming to restore France to a 
place of influence among the great powers, and at once 
took advantage of the dissension. He opposed alike 
Russian annexation and the destruction of Saxon 
autonomy, and induced Austria and England, with some 
of the minor powers, to combine with France against 
the northern powers. A secret treaty was signed, 
pledging the signatory powers to forcible resistance, January, 181 5. 
if necessary. And thus the war was very nearly re- 
newed. 

But the dangerous dispute was settled by compromise, compromise. 
The limits of Alexander's proposed Polish kingdom were 
clipped of their most obnoxious fortresses in the direc- 
tion of both his southern neighbors, and on the other 
hand the king of Saxony was restored to his throne, 
losing only about half his territory to Prussia; and Fred- 
erick William was further compensated for his losses of 
1806 by the annexation of the trans-Rhenish provinces 
which now for twenty years had been a part of France. 

The question of the organization of Germany was one 
already dear to the hearts of German patriots like Stein. 



German Unity. 



76 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

The great powers had delegated to a German committee 
the consideration of this question. It was urged by- 
Stein that for the protection of Germany against future 
French aggression, as well as for the preservation of civil 
liberty in the smaller states, a German Federation should 
be formed, strong enough to control — in short, somewhat 
like the United States of America under the Constitution 
of 1787. 

But Stein was in advance of his age. The time was 
not yet ripe for a united German fatherland. Feder- 
ation is never easy, and in Germany in 181 5 it had to 
confront jealousies and antipathies which were irresist- 
ible. Neither of the great powers, Austria and Prussia, 
would surrender a jot of their independent sovereignty, 
nor would the small monarchs do more. And the result 
was a very weak act, creating a Germanic Federation 
which was such in little more than name. The confed- 
erates retained all their separate autonomy, and the 
Federal Diet was simply a powerless congress of am- 
bassadors. Instead of a repetition of the American 
Federal Constitution, there appeared an instrument of 
government even weaker than the old American Articles 
of Confederation. These same articles probably made 
about the weakest and worst form of government which 
the wit of man ever devised. But the German federal 
act of 18 1 5 was not a form of government at all; it was 
a polite and ceremonious way of doing nothing. 

The final act which summed up the work of the 
Congress was very voluminous, including some 205 
pages of print. These international enactments formed 
the public law of Europe until the middle of the cen- 
tury. The arrangements of Vienna are the starting 
point from which the reconstruction of Europe in its 
second half has proceeded. 



The Congress of Vienna. 



77 



A brief view of those arrangements will be of advan- summary, 
tage. The Austrian and Prussian monarchies were re- 
stored in territory and population to what they had been 
before Napoleon reduced their power. In neither case 
was there a question of getting in all cases the same, but 
only equivalents. Prussia did not regain its Polish prov- Prussia, 
inces, but it had a full equivalent in a moiety of Saxony, 
and in the Rhenish provinces. And the direction thus 
given to Prussian power was of vast future significance. 




Prussian Royal Mausoleum at Charlottenburg. Queen Louise 
and King Frederick William III. 

It made Prussia more distinctively a German state, and 
placed it on the French frontier as a bulwark of Germany. 
What that meant was more fully apparent in 1870. 

Austria lost the Netherlands; but Lombardy and the 
Tyrol were regained, and Venetia, with the Illyrian 
and Dalmatian provinces, was finally acquired. This 
ominously increased Austrian influence in the Italian 



Austria, 



7» 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



Russia. 



England. 



Sweden. 



Switzerland. 



Sardinia. 



The Bourbons 
and the Pope. 



The 

Netherlands. 



peninsula, and, at the same time, by providing a coast 
line and harbors, made Austria a Mediterranean Sea 
power. 

Russia acquired the kingdom of Poland, thus extend- 
ing her borders toward Germany, but at the same time 
including in its new territory mainly a Slavic people. 

England was confirmed in the possession of Malta, 
which island had been the casus belli with Napoleon in 
1803, and also was given title to Heligoland, and various 
French and Dutch colonies. 

Sweden was rewarded for its early adhesion to the 
alliance by the gift of Norway, which was taken from 
Denmark. The latter country had been true to Na- 
poleon as long as possible, the bombardment of Copen- 
hagen not disposing the Danes to much amity with 
England. 

Switzerland was given Geneva, the Wallis, and Neu- 
chatel, thus raising the number of confederated cantons 
from nineteen to its present number, twenty-two. 

The old republic of Genoa was awarded to Piedmont 
(the kingdom of Sardinia), thus sharing final extinction 
with its ancient rival, Venice. 

The overthrown Bourbon dynasties were restored to 
their thrones in France, in Spain, in Sardinia, Tuscany, 
Modena, and Naples. The papal states were restored 
to the temporal sovereignty of the pope. 

The old Dutch republic (Holland) and the old Span- 
ish and Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) were united 
and formed into the kingdom of the Netherlands, with 
a descendant of the old Orange stadtholders on the 
throne. This union proved an ill-starred one. The 
two countries thus arbitrarily paired were incongruous 
in every way, and after only fifteen years they fell apart. 

Thus was Europe parceled out at will by the victorious 



The Congress of Vienna. 79 

powers at the Congress of Vienna. The spirit of that 

body was the triumph of the reaction over the Revo- The spoils. 

lution. The political face of Europe was put back where 

it was when the French zealots began to preach the 

rights of man. An acute writer says of the Congress : 

' ' Its proceedings were characterized by a disregard of 

popular rights, of differences of race and religion, and Lod s e > 62 9- 

of historical tradition, worthy of Napoleon in his most 

absolute days. Europe was treated as if it were a blank 

map which might be divided into arbitrary districts of so 

many square miles and so many inhabitants. ' ' 

But after all society could not altogether be put where 
it had been in the middle of the eighteenth century. 
The French Revolution had happened, and never again 
could the masses be the same as before 1789. The 
democratic trend of the nineteenth century has been 
like the current of Niagara. Its waters may be quiet, 
but they are hastening toward the cataract. 

SUMMARY. 

The Congress of Vienna met for the purpose of recon- 
structing Europe. The treaties made by it formed the public 
law of Europe for fifty years. 

The object of the congress was to put Europe back where it 
was in 17S9. 

All important questions were settled by private negotiations 
of the five leading powers. 

Talleyrand opposed Russian annexation of Poland and 
Prussian annexation of Saxony and formed a coalition against 
both projects. 

The attempt to form a German federation was a failure. 

Austria and Prussia were practically restored to what they 
were in 1789. Russia acquired Poland, England got Malta 
and various colonial possessions, Sweden received Norway, 
Switzerland was reorganized and enlarged, the pope recovered 
his dominions, and the new kingdom of the Netherlands was 
formed. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE REIGN OF METTERNICH. 



Count 
Metternich. 



His Idea. 



Muller, 5, 6. 



The Mephistopheles of European politics from the 
Congress of Vienna until the year 1848 was the prime 
minister of Austria, Count Metternich. In his political 
ideas he was the very incarnation of the reaction, and 
so commanding' was the influence which he won, and so 
central was the position of Austria, that the ideas of 
Metternich were the ruling policies of the Continent. 
Austria was the foremost figure in Germany and the 
dominant power in Italy — and was the evil genius of 
each; and Austria was Metternich. 

His predominant idea was "neither to innovate nor 
to go back, but to keep things as they were." To go 
back he knew was impossible; but he set his face like a 
flint against any progress. " Ideas were at work," he 
said, ' ' which ought never to have entered the world, 
but, having unfortunately gained admission, made it the 
task of government to resist their influence by all avail- 
able means." And so he set out to keep Austria 
passive by a comprehensive system of police espionage, 
and to keep the rest of Europe in accord by his skilful 
diplomacy. Muller analyzes his Austrian policy neatly: 
"Austria must make herself felt, not by her military 
strength, but through the skill of her diplomats and the 
omnipresence of her police and spies. This was Met- 
ternich' s chosen field; while the emperor found his 
pleasure in the details of the police system, which was 
developed under him into a system of espionage of the 



The Reign of Metternich. 81 

most unworthy sort. This was, however, admirably- 
adapted to that patriarchal system in accordance with 
which the government, so far from denying its Oriental 
views, even dared to inculcate in its subjects the doctrine 
that the sovereign ' has full power over their lives and 
property.' No less care was exercised in shutting up 
Austria against other lands. The influx of foreign 
intellects and intellectual products was guarded against 
like the smuggling in of the cattle plague. Study in 
foreign universities was forbidden. The entrance into 
Austrian schools of foreign teachers and of scholars 
over ten years of age was forbidden, and even for 
younger children permission had to be obtained. The 
imparting of private instruction was rendered very diffi- 
cult, permission being granted by the police only under 
oppressive conditions, and even then revocable every six 
years. All political literature, as well as modern his- 
tories, was subjected to strict censorship, with a view to 
police prohibition. For Austria the German movement 
in the provinces of philosophy and theology, the progress 
in history and the natural sciences, did not exist. What 
was there permitted and pursued was the study of Ori- 
ental languages and literature, a little poetry, and by 
preference, music, in order to charm the excited spirits 
into a soft world of sense, and to rock the empire into an 
Epimenidean sleep of years. As for popular instruc- 
tion, scarcely three fifths of the children of school age 
attended school and those who attended were, with their 
teachers, confined to a mechanical drill from which the 
why and wherefore were carefully excluded. The object 
was not to produce savants, but subjects and officials 
trained to blind obedience. For this purpose no guard 
and overseer could be more effective than the clergy. 
Upon their religious certificate depended every advance 



82 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



in the gymnasium and universities, and confession was 
exacted from teachers and scholars six times yearly. It 
will readily be understood that the Protestants were much 
oppressed, hardly tolerated. Upon purchasing a house — 
upon assuming a trade — they were obliged to apply for 
a dispensation. To enter the military academy at 
Vienna they must abjure their religion." 
Enforced calm. Under this potent system of civil and ecclesiastical 
police, the empire was kept in political quiet. The 
merchant traded, the peasant tilled the soil, the noble 
lived a life of stately elegance, and Metternich and the 
emperor governed. Thinking was not a prerogative of 
subjects; and so in those years Austria added nothing to 
the intellectual wealth of Europe. But there were 
uneasy stirrings in the empire, nevertheless. The 
population was a motley of various races. 
There were German Liberals who were 
restive under repression. There were 
Slavs and Magyars and Italian patriots 
who submitted sullenly to a foreign dom- 
ination. What Metternich called "the 
pernicious principle of nationalities" had 
sprung into life during the Napoleonic 
wars. National consciousness was quick- 
ening among races which had long been 
subject. And national autonomy was as 
fatal a solvent of the complex Austrian 
dominions as the ' ' rights of man ' ' had 
proved to autocratic royalty. 

Of the Germanic Confederation, which 

was the stone offered by the Congress of 

Vienna to German patriots in lieu of the 

bread of national organization for which 

Court Dress. they longed, Austria was the president. 




The Reign of Metternich. 83 

In this way Metternich was able to exert a wide influence Germany. 
among the various states. In Prussia and Protestant 
north Germany in general, the full Austrian system of re- 
pression was impossible. Thought was free, and a vig- 
orous intellectual life was beginning already to presage 
German leadership in mental achievement. But political 
reform had not yet come, and the policy of most of the 
German princes was to promise constitutions, but never 
in fact to grant them. Metternich steadily exerted his 
influence in favor of absolutism and repression, and so 
German thinkers were sickened as they saw popular 
rights as freely disregarded as was German unity. 

In southern Europe Metternich' s baleful policy was The south, 
quite as effective as in the center. 

It had been the plan of the great powers that the 
Italian peninsula (there was no Italy) should comprise a 
number of independent states. Austria, to be sure, was 
given the northeast. The kingdom of Sardinia, under 
a prince of the old line of Savoy, occupied the north- 
west. In a belt across the center were the temporal 
dominions of the pope. The whole south of the penin- 
sula was the kingdom of Naples, to which belonged also 
the island of Sicily. And between Sardinia and the 
papal states was a cluster of small independent duchies, 
Tuscany, Modena, Parma. But as Austria was the only 
one of the great powers which had a footing in Italy, 
it was the idea of Metternich that Austrian influence 
should be supreme throughout the peninsula. To this 
end he readily effected treaties with Naples and the 
duchies, binding them to cooperate with Austria in 
stamping out any notions of constitutional freedom. 
The king of Sardinia and the pope declined to make the 
alliance sought. 

There were dangerous thoughts fermenting in Italy. 



84 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



Unity and free- 
dom. 



The Holy 
Alliance. 



Spanish 

Revolution, 

1820. 



French in 

Spain, 

1823. 



A large part of the peninsula had for years been a part 
of France, and another large part had been Napoleon' s 
Italian kingdom. In this way many Italians had be- 
come practically familiar with French political ideas, and 
the thought of a united Italian nation had become a 
serious political project with not a few; and this meant 
danger to all the vested ruling interests from the Alps to 
Sicily. 

In 181 5, while the allies were in Paris, Alexander 
drew the plan of a semi-religious, semi-political brother- 
hood of the sovereigns to maintain peace and right- 
eousness on earth. This was not exactly the aim of the 
various courts, but the plan was received with the 
courtesy due to its powerful projector. However, it 
had no practical effect. But in 181 8 a conference was 
held at Aix-la-Chapelle, at which, while no definite 
projects were adopted, there was a general agreement to 
repress with a firm hand any movements for constitutional 
freedom. Alexander had now renounced his liberalism, 
and the concert of Europe was complete. 

Of all the Bourbons who were restored to their thrones, 
none was more vigorously despicable than Ferdinand 
of Spain. The constitution adopted by the Spanish 
patriots in 181 2 he at once subverted, and the Inqui- 
sition and the priests were the real sovereign. Pro- 
scription, repression, tyranny, and corruption, then, 
had their logical outcome in 1820 in a general revolt. 
The constitution was again proclaimed, and Ferdinand 
compelled to swear to its observance. But this excited 
the alarm of Europe, and France, with general assent, 
dispatched an army into Spain. The liberal govern- 
ment was overthrown, and Ferdinand, restored to his 
absolute throne, celebrated his victory by a harvest of 
confiscations and executions. 



The Reign of Metternich. 



§5 



There was another Ferdinand in Naples, uncle of the 
Spanish king, and a true Bourbon. When the news of 
the Spanish insurrection reached southern Italy, revolt 
broke out there also, and the Spanish constitution, 
adopted by the revolutionists, was accepted by the king, 
who solemnly swore to observe it. Then he quietly 
wrote to the emperor of Austria that he had no idea at 
all of keeping his oath. And in the following year an 
Austrian army entered Naples, overthrew the constitu- 
tionalists, and replaced the king on his absolute throne. 

In the spring of 182 1 insurrection in behalf of a consti- 
tutional government broke out in Piedmont. The tsar, 
alarmed at the situation, was ready to march 100,000 
Russians into Italy, but it was unnecessary. The Aus- 
trians easily put down this revolt also. 

Thus Austria and France in turn became the agents 
of absolutism to crush attempts at revolution, and the 
popular insurrections of 1820 all failed. 

Revolution on the other side of the Atlantic also ex- 
cited the attention of reactionary Europe. The Spanish 
American colonies threw off the yoke of King Ferdinand, 
and maintained their republican liberties by force of 
arms. It was seriously proposed by the great powers to 
send troops to reclaim these rebels to their allegiance, 
and France was quite willing to be the agent of Spain to 
this end. But President James Monroe, in a message to 
Congress, December, 1823, intimated that any such pro- 
ceeding would be regarded as inimical to the United 
States; and the plan of European intervention in South 
America was quietly dropped. 

When Louis XVIII., brother of the guillotined Louis 
XVI., ascended the throne of France, he was main- 
tained by foreign troops. It was not until 1818 that the 
last garrisons of the allies were withdrawn. It was 



Naples. 



The Monroe 
Doctrine. 



France. 



1S14. 



86 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The Charter. 



Fyffe, II., 15,16. 
See the charter 
in full in Miche- 
let. 



necessary that some measures should be taken to secure 
the dynasty popular support. France was not Austria 
or Russia, and so the king was induced to grant a con- 
stitution, the royal charter of 18 14. 

By this measure France became a constitutional mon- 
archy with a legislature of two chambers, and a re- 




LOUIS XVIII. IN THE TUILERIES. (1814.) 

Louis XVIII., King of France. Born, 1755. Brother of Louis XVI. Fled 
from France, 1791. Placed on throne by the allies, 1814. Restored after 
Waterloo, 1815. Died, 1824. 

sponsible ministry, copied from that of England. The 
Chamber of Peers consisted of members for life and 
hereditary members, and included many of Napoleon's 
marshals and senators. The lower house was elected 
by voters possessed of a very high property qualification, 
the payment of some $325 a year in direct taxes; 
no one could be a member who did not pay at least 



The Reign of Mcttcrnich. 87 



$2,000 a year in direct taxes. By these restrictions the 
whole number of voters in France was only about 
200,000, while often there were not fifty men in 
a department eligible for membership. Further, the 
crown had the sole right of initiating laws. The cham- 
bers could only discuss and vote. With all these re- 
strictions, which make the charter seem illiberal enough 
in American eyes, still it was a decided advance on the 
constitution of the consulate and empire. There was 
the gain in a responsible ministry, in the power of dis- 
cussion and voting in both houses, and in the extent of 
suffrage. Aside from this scheme of organizing the 
general government, the institutions which the Revolu- 
tion had worked out were, in the main, left untouched. 

Louis XVIII. was himself a good-natured and rather L OU i s xvm 
easy-going king, who, like Charles II. of England, 
made it his chief aim to keep from going on his travels 
again. He was disposed to be moderate, therefore, and 
not to look too closely at the antecedents of persons 
whom he employed, and anything savoring of perse- 
cution was quite foreign to his temperament. 

But it was no easy task for him to restrain his fol- 
lowers. A swarm of emigre nobles and priests had 
returned with the king, and these as a rule by no means 
shared his liberal views. At their head was the king's 
brother and heir, the Count of Artois (afterwards Charles 
X.). This prince was a thoroughgoing bigot and reac- 
tionary, and through the pressure exerted by this party 
of ultra royalists and clericals a strong policy was gradu- 
ally forced on the crown. 

The reactionaries could not subvert the constitution 
or obliterate the results of the Revolution, but they 
could control the administration. And so France soon 
saw the army reorganized with emigre nobles in the 



The Reaction- 
aries. 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



1824. 



place of veterans, with the white flag in place of the 
revolutionary tri-color, with the old royal household 
troops in place of the Imperial Guard. The Church 
could not get back its land, as it had to a considerable 
extent in Naples, or introduce the Inquisition, as it 
had in Spain, but in all ways possible it was favored by 
the court. Bishops were given seats in the House of 
Peers, and priests favored as far as could be. 
Charles x. It was the influence of this extreme reactionary party 

which induced Louis XVIII. to send an army into 
Spain in 1823, and at the death of Louis in the follow- 
ing year, it was the leader of this party who ascended 
the throne as Charles X. The brief reign of this 
typical Bourbon was sufficient proof that his ancient 
family is hopelessly at odds with the nineteenth century. 
A sum of $200,000,000 was given from the public 
treasury to reimburse the emigrant noblesse for their 
confiscated lands. Royal favor was extended to the 
monastic orders, although their existence in France was 
illegal. And in 1829 the king gave up the pretense of 
cabinet government, and appointed a clerical and re- 
actionary ministry in the face of an overwhelming 
Liberal majority in the Chamber of Deputies. When 
the Chamber met this with an address praying the king 
to change his ministers, he dissolved the Chamber and 
ordered new elections. But the electors replied by re- 
turning a largely increased Liberal majority. Then the 
king showed his real character. Basing his action on a 
clause of the charter empowering the crown ' ' to make 
the regulations and ordinances necessary for the execu- 
tion of the laws and for the security of the State," 
Charles issued a series of ordinances restricting the 
liberty of the press, dissolving the newly elected Cham- 
ber of Deputies, still further restricting the electorate, 



July 26, 1830. 



The Reign of Metternich. 89 

and restoring to the crown the sole initiative in legisla- 
tion (which had been granted to the Chambers a few 
years before). This was an audacious abrogation of Revolution of 
the constitution, which the people of Paris met by in- 
surrection. Again barricades rose in the streets, and 
the tri-color flew from the Hotel de Ville. The royal 
troops were driven from the city, and the Chambers, 
meeting in spite of the dissolution, summoned Louis 
Philippe, Duke of Orleans, the king's kinsman, to act 
as lieutenant-general of the kingdom. Charles and his 
son then both abdicated in favor of the son of the latter, 
but the abdications only were accepted, and Louis 
Philippe was formally tendered the throne by the 
Chambers. He declared that he could not resist the 
call of his country, took the oath to support the consti- 
tution as it had been modified by the Liberal Chambers, 
and was formally proclaimed king of the French. 

Thus for a second time the Bourbon dynasty fell. It 
was an anachronism in the nineteenth century. It was 
not overthrown by the French nation, but fell by its 
own imbecility. 

SUMMARY. 

Metternich dominated European politics from 1815 to 
1848. His purpose was "neither to innovate nor to go back, 
but to keep things as they were." Thought was suppressed 
wherever Austria controlled. 

The Holy Alliance sought to repress all movements for 
constitutional freedom. It put down the Spanish and Neapol- 
itan revolts of 1820 and threatened intervention in South 
America. 

Louis XVIII. established a constitutional government, but 
the Reactionaries controlled the administration. 

Charles X. reimbursed the nobles for their confiscated lands, 
extended his favor to the illegal monastic orders, and 
abandoned cabinet government. His July decrees raised an 
insurrection in Paris by which he was overthrown. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Character of 

Louis 

Philippe 



and of the 
revolution of 
1830. 



THE ORLEANS MONARCHY AND THE SECOND FRENCH 
REPUBLIC. 

Louis Philippe was the son of that infamous Duke 
of Orleans whose vote in the Convention had sent Louis 
XVI. to the guillotine, and whose own head afterwards 
fell during the Terror. The young duke had been a 
soldier of France at Jemappes in 1792, an exile earning 
his bread by teaching, had wandered in many lands, and 
in 1 8 14 had returned to the home of his ancestors to 
receive the vast estates of his family. His role during 
the reign of Charles X. had been that of the quiet 
citizen, interested in all things modern and intellectual, 
sympathizing with liberal ideas in politics, and quite 
simple and democratic in his ways. His elevation to 
the throne seemed a victory for constitutionalism over 
absolutist tendencies in the crown, and for the middle 
classes over the aristocrats. 

It was in truth more than that. The Orleans mon- 
archy was founded on the assent of Parliament and on 
the negative of divine right. It is quite true that the 
intrigue which diverted the insurrection of July to Louis 
Philippe was in no sense a popular movement. The 
nation, as a whole, had no opportunity of choice. The 
Republicans who had raised the tri-color in the spirit of 
'92 were bitterly disappointed. Whether one set of 
politicians or another wielded the monarchy, seemed of 
little moment, so long as in either case there must be a 
king. But the difference after all was vital. The prin- 

90 



Orleans Monarchy and Second Republic. 91 

ciple of the Orleans monarchy was popular sovereignty; 
that of the Bourbons was royalty by divine right. Louis 
XVIII. granted his people a constitution. The French 
legislature in 1830 granted Louis Philippe a throne, with 
a constitution as a condition precedent.* 

The form of government was very slightly changed. Government. 
The legislature retained the initiative which Charles had 
attempted to take away. But the administrative system 
was as centralized as ever, and the electorate as limited. 
In all France there were no more voters than there are 
to-day in the one city of Chicago. However, quite a 
new policy was manifested in the administration. The 
bishops were removed from the House of Peers, educa- 
tion was secularized, the laws against monastic orders 
were enforced. The nobles, too, as well as the priests, 
lost all political influence. 

The eighteen years from 1830 to 1848 were spent by R e i gn of Louis 
Louis Philippe in the anxious endeavor to strengthen his Phlh PP e - 
dynasty at home and abroad. The most conspicuous 
politicians were Thiers and Guizot, who alternately 
headed the ministry through most of the reign, and 
there was no one great thing for which all those years are 
memorable. 

The first serious difficulty came from the immediate Risin „ sin 
effects in other lands of the Paris Revolution. Smoul- Eur °P e > l8 3°- 
dering discontent broke out at once into flame in Bel- 
gium, in Germany, and in Italy. 

Belgium had been unequally yoked together with 
Holland in the arrangements of the Congress of Vienna. 
There was no sympathy between the countries, and now 

* " Instead of a representative of divine right, attended by guards and nobles 
and counseled by Jesuit confessors, there was now a citizen king, who walked 
about the streets of Paris with an umbrella under his arm, and sent his sons 
to the public schools, but who had at heart as keen a devotion to dynastic in- 
terests as either of his predecessors, and a much greater capacity for personal 
rule." — Fyffe, II., 379. 



Italy. 



92 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

Belgium was in open revolt. The Dutch were inclined 
to reduce the rebels, and if France alone had sided with 
Belgium, doubtless the great powers would have united 
with Holland. But Louis Philippe, by good diplomacy, 
induced England to join with France in maintaining 
Belgian independence, and so the Dutch had to give 
way. The tsar was busy with a determined revolt in 
Poland, and Austria was similarly occupied in Italy. 
Thus the concert between France and England was un- 
opposed, and the good understanding then established 
on the two sides of the Channel continued for several 
years. 

The attempts at revolution in Italy were unsuccessful. 
Austrian arms were used to maintain the old order in 
the peninsula, but Metternich was checked from going 
very far in intervention by the determined opposition of 
France. 
Policy of These first diplomatic moves of the citizen king were 

Iippe ' successful. He was recognized by all the powers, the 
old political isolation of France was done away, and the 
French power was felt with decisive effect. But in sub- 
sequent years there was not the same good fortune. 
Algiers, to be sure, was conquered, and thus France 
gained a foothold in Africa. But when Mehemet AH, 
the revolted viceroy of Egypt, threatened to move on 
Constantinople and to overthrow the sultan, the powers 
of Europe interfered. France was inclined to support 
Mehemet, but a quadruple alliance of the other powers 
was then formed, and the Egyptian driven back to his 
own place on the Nile. As this was in direct oppo- 
sition to French diplomacy, the government of Louis 
Philippe lost no little prestige at home. And a few 
years later the good understanding with England, im- 
periled by the Egyptian question, was quite lost by the 



Orleans Monarchy and Second Republic. 93 

folly of the French government. Louis Philippe was 
anxious to ally his family with other reigning houses, 
and negotiated a marriage of one of his sons with the 
sister of the Spanish queen ; and this marriage was con- 
summated by a shabby evasion of an explicit agreement 
with England. This tricky conduct alienated England 
and at the same time disgusted France with the Orleans 
monarch. 

In the meantime a vivid sentiment of admiration for The Napoleon 
Napoleon had been growing up. The ambition and 
despotism of the emperor were forgotten, and only the 
strength and glory of his reign were remembered, the 
greater in contrast with the weak and commonplace 
Bourbon and Orleans monarchies. Thiers wrote in 
glowing terms the history of the consulate and empire. 
Beranger's inspiring lyrics sang of the great deeds of 
Frenchmen under Napoleon's lead. Many veterans of 
Waterloo and Borodino and Austerlitz were yet living 
to keep fresh the recollection of their exploits, and the 
picture of the emperor was found in the peasant's cot- 
tage from Flanders to the Pyrenees. The government 
of Louis Philippe thought to win for itself popular favor 
from this renascence of Bonapartist sentiment, and so 
negotiated with England the return of Napoleon's 
body from St. Helena. A French squadron conveyed 
the coffin to France, and with imposing solemnities the 
mortal remains of the conqueror were deposited in a 
stately tomb under the dome of the Invalides. But all 
this pageantry served only to add to the rising tide of 
worship for Napoleon. The king and his dynasty gained 
nothing. 

There was another force which complicated the politi- SocJa i; sm 
cal situation. During the long peace, speculation on 
economic questions became rife, and socialism began to 




Tomb of Napoleon, Hotel des Invalides, Paris. 



Orleans Monarchy and Second Rep2cblic. 95 

win many adherents. The laboring poor in the cities 
saw little gain from all the political commotion since 
1789, and they were readily captivated by the doctrine 
that the State owed them labor and wages, and that the 
means of production should be the property of the 
workers. The year 1847 was a hard one, and there was 
much suffering. This greatly recruited the numbers of 
the socialists. 

As the middle of the century approached, the crown weakness of 
had lost support in all quarters. It had become plainly government, 
evident that Louis Philippe was a Bourbon at heart, and 
that his government was weak and corrupt. The king 
was exceedingly thrifty in his personal menage, and 
people did not like the spectacle of the royal private 
funds embarked in business speculation. The contempt 
for a bourgeois king was not lessened when the Spanish 
marriages showed that he was capable of shuffling 
evasions unworthy of any man of honor, and so there 
was little respect for the monarch as a man. Then, 
after an attempt on Louis Philippe's life in 1835, the 
press laws had been made very strict again, and this 
alienated the journalists. The limited franchise, too, 
made the legislature merely representative of the wealthy 
bourgeoisie, so that there was no political outlet for 
popular unrest. And the revival of the worship of 
Bonaparte, together with the rapid spread of socialistic 
theories among the artisans, added positive antagonistic 
ideas to mere negative opposition. It was evident that 
the dynasty must crumble at any determined blow. 

It was the franchise that was the immediate cause of Electoral re _ 
the crash. The property qualification was so high that form - 
there were only about 300,000 voters in all France, and folre^hortiy 
none but rich men could sit in the Chambers. Further, aft f r > made the 

' voters about 

there was no law to prevent officeholders from sitting, 1°.°°°.°°°. 



9 6 



Etirope in the Nineteenth Century. 



Revolution of 
February, 1848 



Feb. 22, iS 



Feb. 23. 



Feb. 24. 



The Second 
Republic- 



and in fact more than a third of the deputies were thus 
in the direct employ of the crown; so the Parliament 
was felt to be in no true sense a body representative of 
the nation. It was merely an agency of the wealthy 
classes and of the king — even worse than the English 
Parliament before 1832. 

Against this restricted system a constitutional agitation 
was set on foot in 1847, under the leadership of Thiers, 
Guizot being prime minister. But the Chamber was 
loyal to the throne, and the Liberals were defeated. A 
banquet of the reform party was then appointed for the 
22nd of February (Washington's birthday), 1848, at 
which it was intended to continue the campaign. The 
government, however, forbade the banquet, and the 
Moderate Liberals obeyed. But the extremists resisted, 
and, when barricades began to rise, regular troops and 
National Guards were called out to maintain order. But 
now it appeared that the guard could not be depended 
upon. When the king learned this he yielded, and dis- 
missed his ministry. 

Now it seemed that all trouble was over. But in the 
evening there was an unexpected collision between 
workmen and soldiers, in which a number of the former 
were killed. At this the mob rose. The military were 
unprepared, and were defeated at several points. The 
king lost courage, and, having abdicated in favor of his 
grandson, fled from Paris. The accidental and tumultu- 
ary insurrection, thus most unexpectedly successful, 
hastily established a provisional government at the Hotel 
de Ville. The accession of the young Count of Paris 
was not permitted, but the Orleans dynasty was swept 
away at once, and the republic proclaimed. 

Thus, at a single hap-hazard blow, the Orleans mon- 
archy dissolved like a bubble. The uprising was aptly 



Provisional 
Government. 



The national 



Orleans Monarchy and Second Republic. 97 

called the ' ' revolution of contempt. ' ' Louis Philippe 
fell, not so much because of the strength of the opposi- 
tion, as because nobody cared particularly to stand by 
him. 

The provisional government, which thus doubtless 
quite to its own surprise found itself in power, was com- 
posed of members of whom a majority were Moderate 
Republicans. But there was an active minority of so- 
cialists, who were eager to raise the red flag and at once 
to proclaim a socialistic republic. This the government 
would not do. The tri-color was retained, and the elec- 
tion of a National Assembly by universal suffrage or- 
dered for April. However, the concession was made to 
the socialists (the "Red Republicans") of promising 
work to all the unemployed. In accordance with this workshops, 
pledge, national workshops were established, although |^, s French 
no one had any very definite idea as to how to manage lod^m ?" 
them or what to make. When the shops were opened x^es™ p 113 
there were 14,000 of the unemployed in Paris. But Revolutionof 
straightway the roads were black with workmen pouring l848 - 
to the capital. In a month the number of employees rose 
to 65,000; and the labor was marvelously inefficient. 

The April elections returned a National Assembly in The Nationa i 
which the Moderate Republicans were in a majority. The Assembl y- 
provisional government was converted into an executive 
commission, a few of the reds being dropped, Louis May4 
Blanc being the most notable of them. This measure 
was followed by an insurrection in the streets of Paris, 
which was promptly put down by the National Guards. 
The Assembly then proceeded to abolish the workshops 
as an evident failure, and a danger to the State. At J une 23 ~ 26 - 
this the socialists again rose, this time in force. General 
Cavaignac, the minister of war, was entrusted with the 
command of the troops, and after four days of hard 



98 



Eiirope in the Nineteenth Century. 



Constitution of 



Louis 
Napoleon. 



fighting the insurgents were crushed. The immediate 
result of this revolt was to impress on France a profound 
fear of the social revolution, and a positive desire for a 
strong government. The executive commission resigned, 

and the sole executive 
power was placed in 
the hands of General 
Cavaignac. 

The Assembly then 
proceeded to form a 
permanent constitu- 
tion for France. This 
provided for a legis- 
lature of one house, 
chosen by universal 
suffrage; a president 
for four years (inel- 
igible for a second 
successive term), also 
chosen directly by 
universal suffrage; 
and a ministry re- 
sponsible to the legislature. The election of president 
was appointed for December 10. 

Among the candidates was Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. 
The son of Hortense Beauharnais (daughter of Napo- 
leon's first wife, Josephine), who was married to Louis, 
a younger brother of the emperor, Louis Napoleon was 
brought up in exile. After the death of his own 
elder brother, and of Napoleon's son, the Duke of 
Reichstadt, Louis became the heir of his imperial 
uncle, and was early possessed with the idea that he 
should one day wear the crown of France. Believing 
implicitly the saying, "If Napoleon's cocked hat 




Thiers as a Soldier of the National 
Guard. From a French Caricature. 



Orleans Monarchy and Second Republic. 99 



and gray coat should be raised on the cliffs of Bou- 
logne on a stick, all Europe would run to arms," the 
young prince on two occasions landed in France and 
attempted to repeat the brilliant success of his uncle's 
return from Elba. But although he wore the cocked 
hat and gray coat, nobody ran to arms. Perhaps the 
stick was all too perceptible. He was imprisoned for his 
second attempt, but succeeded in escaping to England a 
couple of years before the fall of Louis Philippe. 

His name commended him to the constituencies when Elements of 
the Assembly was chosen in 1848, and he was elected a stren s th - 
member. And then suddenly this almost unknown man, 
who had never shown talent or energy, appeared a for- 
midable candidate for the presidency of the French 
Republic. What was the secret of his strength ? 

It must be remembered that at that time the majority 
of the people of France wanted, above all else, social 
order — the protection of property and life against the Red 
Republicans. This majority comprised all the wealthy, 
the middle classes in the towns, and the rural peasantry. 

Politically there were four parties: the Legitimists, 
who favored the elder Bourbon line, the Orleanists, the 
Republicans, and the Bonapartists. The two Royalist 
parties could not agree with each other, and had no can- 
didate who could overcome the recent odium of both the 
last two reigns. The Republicans were discredited by 
the June insurrection of the reds, and, moreover, had 
no candidate who was wholly trusted. Cavaignac was 
honest, but had no elements of popularity. 

Louis Napoleon stood for order, and he had back of 
him all the new enthusiasm for his name. In other 
words, he alone stood for order and sentiment, while the 
Royalists were politically paralyzed, and the nation was 
inspired with profound dread of the ' ' red specter. ' ' 



ioo Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

It was thought by some of the leaders in the Assem- 
bly that Louis Napoleon was a very dull man, who could 
easily be kept in order. They had occasion to change 
their minds afterwards.* 

About 7,300,000 votes were cast. Louis Napoleon 
had 5,400,000, Cavaignac had 1,500,000, the rest were 
scattering. Thus, once more a Bonaparte was at the 
head of a French Republic. 

SUMMARY. 

The principle of the Orleans monarchy was popular sover- 
eignty : that of the Bourbons was divine right. The Orleans 
government was not reactionary : otherwise it differed little 
from that of the Bourbons. 

The Belgian revolt against Holland was supported by 
France and England, and Belgium became independent. 

France conquered Algiers, but her conduct with reference 
to Mehemet Ali impaired her good understanding with Eng- 
land. 

The memory of Napoleon made the Orleans monarchy 
seem commonplace. 

Socialism became a force in politics. 

The downfall of the Orleans monarchy was occasioned by 
the question of the electoral franchise. 

The Moderate Republicans controlled the Provisional Gov- 
ernment and the National Assembly, and established a re- 
public. 

Louis Napoleon was chosen president because he repre- 
sented the Napoleonic legend and stood for order. 



* Thiers said afterwards that the French made two mistakes about Louis 
Napoleon : first, when they took him for a fool, and, afterwards, when they 
took him for a man of genius. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



EIGHTEEN HUNDRED FORTY-EIGHT IN GERMANY. 



The revolution of February in Paris was like a 
lighted match touched to the dry prairie grass after a 
drought. The flames flashed at once throughout the 
Continent. 

When the French people overturned their monarchy 
in 1792, there was little response among the masses of 
other lands. All seemed sunk in profound apathy. But 
since then a quiet but profound change had come over 
all Europe. Metternich fancied in 1847 that the old 
order was as secure as ever. A few hours of 1848 
showed the old man the political earth melting away 
under his feet. 

The desire for one German nation hardly existed be- German unity, 
fore the nineteenth century, except among poets and 
other dreamers; but the oppressive rule of Napoleon 
awakened the spirit of German patriotism, and the rising 
of Germany against the French emperor in 18 13 was 
not only an assault on a hated invader, but was quite as 
much an insurrection of national sentiment. There was 
ardent hope among German patriots that the Con- 
gress of Vienna would organize a united Germany. But 
the selfish and disruptive forces were too strong, and the 
feeble Germanic Confederation of 18 14 was a sad disap- 
pointment. 

Another political idea had become rooted among many constitutional 
Germans during the stormy years of the Napoleonic rule. 



government. 



102 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The German 
Renascence. 



Austria and 
Prussia. 



England enjoyed constitutional freedom. Even in con- 
quered France a constitution was granted by the restored 
Bourbon king; and similar rights were now the object of 
hope and effort among German patriots. 

But the victory of the allied monarchs over Napoleon 
was too complete. They had not finally crushed the 
democratic revolution in France only to give it lodg- 
ment in their own dominions. And so it soon appeared 
that the assurances of some of the German potentates 
in the midst of the struggle were meant only in a Pick- 
wickian sense. The promised constitutions were not 
granted, and a paternal despotism yet supervised every 
act of private life. 

There was sullen obedience; but the leaven went on 
working. Students became enthusiasts for German 
unity and free government. Artisans learned that in 
France and England their fellows were free to form asso- 
ciations for mutual welfare, which were strictly forbidden 
in Germany. And ideas of unity and liberty crept from 
mind to mind, in spite of an active police and vigorous 
supervision of the press. There was a great awakening 
of German intellect in all lines of thought, and this could 
not be restricted to archaeology and speculative philos- 
ophy. 

The French Revolution in 1830 was echoed in several 
German states, but without effect. As yet there were 
too many bayonets at the control of the autocrats. The 
time was not ripe. 

The possibility of union was made all the more diffi- 
cult by the position and mutual jealousy of Austria and 
Prussia. The latter state was Protestant, the former 
was Catholic. Austria was very largely non-German, 
but yet retained large German provinces and the leader- 
ship in the Germanic Confederation. Prussia was prac- 



Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight in Germany. 103 

tically wholly German. And either was too strong to 
yield precedence to the other. 

Still, one step taken by Prussia looked toward united The zoiiverein, 
action. A series of treaties between that power and I 2 ' 3 ' 
nearly all the other states of the Confederation (excepting 
Austria) united them in a customs union {Zollverebi) . 
Custom houses between the members of this union were 
done away, and the duties levied on the general frontiers 
were divided pro rata. This was by no means a political 
union, but common action accustomed the states to work 
together, and so paved the way to union for wider pur- 
poses. The beneficent economic effect of removing the 
paltry impediments to domestic trade was soon felt in a 
great increase of business; and thus was provided a 
new and powerful motive for national union. 

In Prussia the efforts of Liberals for free institutions p ruS sia. 
were hindered by the fact that the government, although 
sufficiently absolute, nevertheless was efficient and 
economical, so that there were no grievances which the 
masses could be led to regard as more than merely theo- 
retical. Still there was constant agitation, and in Feb- 
ruary, 1847, the king granted a Parliament. This con- 
sisted of a House of Lords and a Lower Chamber, which 
represented the knights, the towns, and the peasants. 
But the Parliament had no power at all to initiate 
legislation, being merely a consultative body; and it was 
soon at odds with the crown, and broke up without 
mending matters. The crown was discredited by the 
failure, and the Liberals irritated and discouraged. 

The news of the February days in Paris led to in- insurrections in 
stant imitation all over Germany. In every capital there 
was insurrection in behalf of popular rights, and every- 
where the government in alarm yielded to the revolu- 
tionists, and granted a free constitution. The demands 



104 



Ei/rope in the Nineteenth Century. 



The Prussian 
Constitution. 



German union. 



The ante- 
Parliament, 
March 30. 



of the Liberals were alike in each state — freedom of the 
press, trial by jury, the equality of religious creeds be- 
fore the law, a responsible ministry, the abolition of 
feudal rights, equal taxation. These have so long been 
the commonplaces of English and American institutions 
that it is not easy for us to realize how lately they have 
been won on the continent of Europe. 

In Berlin the king hesitated at first, but on learning 
that the revolution was everywhere, that even in Vienna, 
the stronghold of absolutism, liberalism had prevailed, 
and that Metternich was overthrown, he yielded, and 
granted constitutional government. The guarantees of 
civil liberty for which the Liberals contended were all 
freely promised. A National Assembly* was to convene, 
and this body should secure the whole scheme of popu- 
lar rights. 

The Prussian king did not stop here. A second 
aspiration, that for German national union, was dear to 
the hearts of the people. Indeed there were many who 
longed for this but who cared little for constitutional 
government. And the king now boldly put himself in 
the forefront of the great national movement, and pub- 
licly announced that thereafter Prussia should be merged 
in Germany. He thus anticipated the policy of a later 
generation, one which it was not for him to carry to 
success. 

In the first flush of revolutionary success, the nation- 
alists had things all their own way. At the end of 
March an informal convention of Liberals from all parts 
of Germany met at Frankfort and proceeded to plan for 



*"To this National Assembly the government would submit measures securing 
the liberty of the individual, the right of public meeting and of associations, 
trial by jury, the responsibility of ministers, and the independence of the 
judicature. . . . Hereditary jurisdictions and manorial rights of police 
were to be abolished ; equality before the laws was to be universally en- 
forced."— Fyffe, III., 24. 



Eighteen Hundred Forty -eight in Germany. 105 

a National Assembly. Of course this body had no legal 
authority, but its resolves were promptly adopted by the 
Diet of the Confederation, and thus the way was made 
clear for a legal Constituent body. But there were di- 
visions and difficulties in the preliminary convention 
which foreshadowed the troubles to come. The attempt 
to prepare a plan of a constitution failed, owing to the 
antagonism between Republicans and Monarchists. The 
latter, on the whole, prevailed. The convention ad- 
journed after a session of less than a week, leaving 
further preparation in the hands of a committee. But 
this committee was not able to devise a plan of repre- 
sentation which would unite the people and the govern- 
ments, and so when the Assembly met, the governments 
were uniformly hostile or luke-warm. These were the 
initial errors — no draft of a constitution ready, no cor- 
dial cooperation of the federal units with the body of 
the nation. True, neither of these was an easy thing to 
bring about. The occasion called for a statesman, or a 
group of statesmen, endowed with the genius to see the 
crucial thing, and with the energy to seize it. But there 
was no Bismarck at Frankfort. 

The election for the National Assembly proceeded The National 
amid the deep emotion of all Germany. This was in- May ?8. y * 
deed the promise at once of liberty and union ; and the 
representatives chosen seemed truly the embodiment 
of the best thought of reawakened German national 
life. There were scholars and poets, learned jurists, 
university professors. "Never," says Muller, "has a 
political assembly contained a greater number of in- 
tellectual and scholarly men — men of character, and 
capable of self-sacrifice. " " But, ' ' he adds, ' ' it cer- 
tainly was not the forte of these numerous professors 
and jurists to conduct practical politics." And that 



io6 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

soon proved to be the fatal defect. What was needed 
above all was men of action. German union implied 
that each one of the numerous governments should 
yield obedience to the central authority. But by what 
compulsion should these independent states be de- 
prived of their sovereignty ? Who could constrain 
Austria and Prussia against their will ? To be sure, if 
the revolution should finally triumph in Berlin and Vi- 
enna, the German people might be trusted to coerce 
their governments. But meanwhile there the govern- 
ments were, jealous, independent, by no means over- 
thrown, only yielding to the storm, and waiting for its 
first force to pass. 

When the Assembly was organized, it was decided to 
Provisional create a provisional executive in place of the old Diet, 

government. x m 1 

and then to proceed with the construction of a constitu- 
tion. The Archduke John of Austria was elected Ad- 
ministrator of Germany, with a responsible ministry. 
Thus the Assembly asserted its position as the supreme 
government of the German nation, while it at the same 
time was proceeding busily with its functions as a con- 
stituent body (a constitutional convention, we should call 
it). 

The Moderates of all shades were in a decided ma- 
jority; but there were two main parties, with various 
sub-divisions of each. The Right* (Conservatives) de- 
sired an imperial constitution in harmony with the exist- 
ing governments. The Left (Liberals) aimed at a re- 
publican federation. The plan of an imperial constitu- 
tion prevailed in the end, but it was only after long 



* Political parties on the continent of Europe are popularly named in parlia- 
mentary language from the place occupied by their representatives in legisla- 
tive sessions. The Liberals sit at the left of the presiding officer, the Con- 
servatives at his right. Men of moderate views sit in the center. Thus the left 
center are Moderate Liberals, the extreme right are uncompromising Con- 
servatives, etc. 



Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight in Germany. 107 

debates. What was needed was action; but the good 
university professors occupied themselves with profound 
and scholarly debates on the fundamental principles of 
government. The Assembly met in May, 1848. It 
was not until March, 1849, that a constitution was 
adopted, and in April the imperial crown was formally 
tendered to the king of Prussia. 

But during these eleven months many things had been 
happening. 

The Prussian National Assembly promised in March p russ i a . 
was duly convened in May. It proved a tumultuous May 22, 1848. 
and democratic body, not endowed with much political 
wisdom. Its proceedings dragged along through the 
summer and autumn, until the news came that the 
Austrian monarchy had put down the insurrection in 
Vienna. Then King Frederick William of Prussia felt 
strong enough to follow a similar course. The Assem- 
bly was dissolved, and the government issued a consti- ecem er5 ' 
tution of its own. This provided for a Parliament of 
two houses, the lower resting on a democratic basis. 
This constitution was substantially accepted by the new 
Parliament, and thus Prussia finally became a consti- Jan „ l8so# 
tutional state; but it retained a strong government. 

A bone of contention which complicated German 
foreign relations was the Schleswig-Holstein question. H C oistein g " 
The two duchies were governed by their own estates 
with the king of Denmark as duke — so that their union 
with Denmark was merely personal, in the crown. But 
the population of Holstein was German, as was the case 
largely in Schleswig. The people of the duchies, there- 
fore, shared in the German national feeling and strongly 
opposed any closer union with Denmark. But on his 
accession to the throne, King Frederick VII. of Den- January, 184S 
mark granted a constitution in which all parts of the 



io8 



Europe hi the Nineteenth Century. 



The Succes- 
sion. 



Austria. 



kingdom were to be treated alike, thus amalgamating 
the German duchies with the Danish nation. 

Another dispute was vitally connected with this. The 
Salic law of succession was claimed in Schleswig and 
Holstein, but did not apply in Denmark. Frederick 
VII. was likely to be the last of the male line, so 
that on his death the duchies and Denmark would be 
divided. In 1846 the then king, Christian VIII., issued 
a declaration that this claim of his German subjects 
would be disregarded, and the constitution of Frederick 
VII. was the realization of this policy. 

At this the Holsteiners revolted, and the Prussian 
king, at the request of the German Diet, sent troops to 
their support. 

Austria had been paralyzed in the spring of 1848 
by insurrection which blazed out in all quarters of the 
empire. But later in the year the tide turned, and 
the emperor was able to take a more decided policy 
in Germany. When the question of German fed- 
eration was before the National Assembly, the status 
of Austria was of critical importance. Should only 
the German parts of that empire be admitted ? Or 
should the entire empire, with its motley population, 
including thirty million Slavs and Magyars, be a part 
of Germany? Or should Austria be excluded alto- 
gether? 

The first might have happened if the Austrian Empire 
had become disintegrated, as seemed probable when the 
National Assembly met. But when the choice was nar- 
rowed to one of the two latter alternatives, the difficulties 
seemed insuperable. As the less of the two evils, the 
Assembly voted to form the federation without Austria 
at all. Thereupon Austria promptly announced that it 
"would neither let itself be expelled from the German 



Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight in Germany. 109 

Confederation, nor let its German provinces be sepa- 
rated from the invisible monarchy." 

The election of the Prussian king to the imperial 
headship was the decisive stroke. He was under Aus- 
trian influence and reluctant to risk a war. Further, he 
had no sympathy with a revolutionary assembly. He 
rejected the offered crown because it did not come from Apnl 3 - l849# 
a legitimate authority. And immediately afterwards the 
Austrian delegates withdrew from the Assembly. Others 
followed. The small governments had generally ac- 
cepted the constitution, but the Assembly was powerless 
without Prussia and Austria. It had reached its con- 
clusions too late. The reaction had come. The Assem- June l8, l849, 
bly crumbled away. Adjourning its sessions to Stutt- 
gart, the remnant identified itself with futile insurrec- 
tions, and finally was turned ignominiously out of doors. 

The revolution had spent its force. Under constraint 
from Austria and Russia the Prussian king withdrew his 
troops from Holstein and abandoned the duchies to the 
Danes. The constitutions were revoked in nearly all the 
states. The old Diet was restored, and the old Germanic 
Confederation, under the headship of Austria, was de- 
clared still in legal existence. German unity was still in 
the future, and constitutional freedom was yet a dream. 

SUMMARY. 

The Germans wanted national unity and a constitution. 

Unity was retarded by the rivalry of Austria and Prussia : 
the Zollverein formed by Prussia was a step in advance. 

The Prussian king granted a Parliament which had no initiative. 

The Paris revolution of 1848 spread to Germany and the 
Prussian king granted a constitution and promised to labor 
for German unity. Prussia became a constitutional state. 

Schleswig-Holstein question complicated German politics. 

In Austria the revolution was suppressed, and Austrian in- 
fluence prevented German unity. 



The reaction. 



CHAPTER IX. 



EIGHTEEN HUNDRED FORTY-EIGHT IN AUSTRIA. 



The Austrian 
Dominions. 



Vienna. 



Hungary. 



The Austrian dominions in 1848, as they do now, in- 
cluded the most complicated tangle of races and tongues 
in Europe. The dominant race, the Germans, were in 
the majority in the western crown lands (provinces), 
and were found largely in Bohemia, and more or less in 
most of the other dominions. The Slavs formed a circle, 
broken only at the west, around the whole empire. In 
the center was Hungary, with a Turanian race, the Mag- 
yars, akin to the Turks; and northeastern Italy also was 
ruled by the Hapsburgs. Amid the confusion of blood 
and language there was also equal diversity in religion. 
Roman Catholics, Oriental Christians, and Jews were 
all under the imperial flag. 

Metternich had kept political ideas so thoroughly out 
of the public mind that he hoped to see no effects in 
Austria from the Paris insurrection; but he found that 
after all people would think. Revolt broke out in Vi- 
enna, headed by the students of the university. Met- 
ternich was compelled to resign and to flee from the 
country, and the crown was obliged to convene a Na- 
tional Assembly, on the basis of universal suffrage, to 
form a constitution. 

Hungary was of old an independent kingdom, which 
had become attached to the Austrian dominions only by 
the political accident of choosing a Hapsburg as king. 
For several years before 1848 an agitation had been 
going on for the restoration of Hungarian nationality. A 



Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight in Austria. 



prominent leader of the patriots in this movement was 
Louis Kossuth, a brilliant journalist and orator. The 
Diet of Hungary was in session when the German re- 
volts began, and at once followed the lead of Kossuth in 
demanding independ- 
ent government, sav- 
ing only the person 
of the monarch. And 
a deputation was sent 
to Vienna with an ad- 
dress demanding a 
responsible ministry 
for Hungary, and also 
freedom of the press, 
trial by jury, equality 
of religion, and a sys- 
tem of national edu- 
cation. This program 
was accepted by the 
emperor, and was fol- 
lowed by more ex- 
treme measures, to 
which the imperial 
assent was also ex- 
torted. The peasants 
were released from all 
feudal burdens, as 
had been done in 
France in 1789. And Hungary was thus virtually an 
independent kingdom. 

The example of the German and Hungarian insur- 
gents was promptly followed by the Slavs in Bohemia. 
The population of this ancient kingdom was largely 
German, though the Slavic Cekhs were in the majority. 




Louis Kossuth. 
Born, 1S02 ; lawyer, 1822; elected to Diet, 1832; 
imprisoned for political offenses, 1838-40 (while 
in prison he learned English by studying 
Shakspere) ; member of Diet, 1847 ; leader of 
Hungarian revolution, 1848-9; guest of Amer- 
ican government in the United States, 1851 ; 
opposed the Hungarian settlement in 1866; 
refused to return home, preferring to live in 
exile rather than to recognize a Hapsburg as 
King ; died at Turin, March 20, 1894. 



Bohemia. 



112 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



There are 
now about 
2,800,000 C2khs 
and 1,800,000 
Germans. 



June 2. 



June 18. 



March 18. 



At first an attempt was made to unite both peoples in a 
movement for constitutional government; but this failed 
to command support, and the long repressed Slavic 
national sentiment, inspired by the success of Hungary, 
burst forth beyond all control. The people began to 
arm, and the government at Vienna yielded to the 
storm, as had been done already in case of the Austrians 
and the Hungarians, and promised a Bohemian National 
Assembly with local autonomy. A general congress of 
Slavonic races was convened at Prague, and a provi- 
sional government was set up. 

But now revolution met with a check. The com- 
mander of the Austrian troops at Prague was Count 
Windischgratz. His aristocratic feeling was indicated 
by the saying attributed to him, "Humankind begins 
with the barons." And his determination was plainly 
shown in what followed. A collision between the peo- 
ple and the soldiers occurred on the 12th of June. Five 
days later Windischgratz attacked the insurgents, and 
the following day found him in full possession of Prague, 
and the Bohemian revolution was suddenly at an end. 

In Italy, too, the revolution blazed out as soon as 
Vienna was known to be in revolt. In Milan the Aus- 
trian troops were driven from the city. Venice seized 
the arsenals and dockyard, and proclaimed the republic 
of St. Mark. Only in General Radetzky's camp was 
left a fragment of Austrian authority. And to insure 
the expulsion of the foreigner, Piedmont took up the 
cause of Lombardy and Venice, and ^before the end of 
March the Piedmontese soldiers entered Milan. 

Thus in every quarter of the empire successful revolt 
had been enthroned. A constitution was promised at 
Vienna. Hungary was practically independent and en- 
dowed with free institutions. The Bohemians had been 



Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight in Austria. 1 13 

promised what the Hungarians had won. Italy was 
apparently lost. And the emperor had fled from his May I7 _ 
capital, leaving it to the revolutionary committees. The 
prospect was not only that absolute government was 
doomed, but also that the empire would be dissolved 
Into its ethnic elements. 

There remained, however, one element which was vet 

J Reaction. 

to assert itself — the army. And there were two deter- 
mined soldiers who meant to crush rebellion by military 
force. Windischgr'atz quelled the revolt of Prague, as has 
been seen. And Radetzky, undismayed by the Italian 
rising, calmly prepared to attack. He was successful. 
The mainland of Venetia soon fell into his hands, the 
Piedmontese king, Charles Albert, was outgeneraled and 
defeated in successive battles. In August, Radetzky 
again entered Milan, and the Piedmontese were finally 
driven out of Lombardy. 

The emperor, encouraged by the victories of his gen- 
erals in Bohemia and Italy, ventured to return to Vienna. 
But here, between the turbulent Viennese and the head- 
strong Magyars the imperial ministry had no quiet time. 

The fatal error of the Magyars was that they failed to 

Y J Magyar 

show the same consideration for other races which andsiav. 
they demanded for themselves from Austria. Hungary 
was encircled, except on the northwest, by Slavic lands — 
Croatia, Dalmatia, Slavonia, Transylvania. At the south 
lay the Military Frontier, inhabited by a hardy population 
of Servians. These people had been invited into the 
empire and given lands in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, in order to form a bulwark against the Turks. 
They were promised a large measure of self-government. 
Austrian absolutism, however, recked little of promises, 
and the Servians had long lost their chartered rights. But 
the revolution of 1848 kindled anew the national aspira- 



ii4 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The Slav 
revolt. 



October 3. 



tions of the Slavs, and the utmost bitterness was roused 
at the policy of the Magyars. These ambitious people, 
having now won their independence, were eager that 
Hungary should be a great kingdom, and so extorted 
from the emperor the consolidation of Croatia, Slavonia 
and Dalmatia with Hungary. Not content with this, 
they attempted to enforce the Magyar language as the 
official tongue of these Slavic provinces. It was only 
little more than a year since the Magyars had suc- 
ceeded in establishing their own language in the pro- 
ceedings of the Hungarian Diet. 

When the Servians and Croatians learned that they 
had only exchanged a German for a Magyar master, 
their indignation flamed into revolt. They declared 
their independence of Hungary and demanded of the 
emperor to be organized as free and independent na- 
tions under his scepter. The Croatians, having no gov- 
ernor at the time, had succeeded in securing from the 
crown the appointment to that position of Jellacic, 
colonel of a Croatian regiment in the imperial army. 
Jellacic was a Magyar hater, and was in sympathy 
with Windischgnitz and Radetzky in desiring a restora- 
tion of the emperor's power. He refused to obey the 
Magyar authorities, and defied their power. Thus civil 
war among the revolutionists came to the aid of the 
reaction; and Jellacic invaded Hungary with an army 
of Croatians. 

Meanwhile the ministry had played a double game 
with Hungary. The demands of Hungarian ministers 
had all been granted, including even the removal of 
Jellacic. But at the same time the Slavs were encour- 
aged in their animosity against the Magyars. Presently 
Jellacic was restored, and as soon as the ministry felt 
strong enough the mask was cast aside. The Hun- 



Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight in Austria. 1 15 

garian Parliament was dissolved, and its acts proclaimed 
null and void. Hungary was put under martial law, and 
Jellacic was appointed to the supreme military and civil 
command. And Austrian troops were set in motion 
to aid his campaign. 

But now trouble was renewed in Vienna. The Parlia- Revolt 
merit, which was one result of the revolution, had no in Vienna - 
sympathy with the policy of Magyar independence. 
But the populace of the capital had, and in October insur- October 6 
rection broke out to prevent troops from going to attack 
Hungary. The rising was successful. The emperor again 
fled from Vienna, leaving the Parliament still sitting as 
the only legal government. And now Windischgratz 
took matters into his own hands and proceeded to put October n. 
down this turbulent capital once for all. His course 
was afterwards ratified by the emperor. But the initia- 
tive in restoring the imperial authority, it will be ob- 
served, was in no case taken by the emperor. Ferdi- 
nand, indeed, was imbecile, and his ministers bewildered. 
But Radetzky in Italy, Jellacic in Croatia, and Windisch- 
gratz in Bohemia, had with independent energy and 
resolution set out to crush the revolution. 

Windischgratz marched on Vienna and after a brief , r . 

a Vienna taken. 

siege carried it by storm. The Hungarians had sent an 
army to its relief, but it had been repelled without 
serious difficulty. The capital was now in the hands 
of the regular troops, and further insurrectionary move- 
ments there were at an end. 

There remained the Parliament, which had been pro- 
rogued at Vienna to meet later in Moravia, and the 
independent Magyars. To deal with these, a new prime 
minister was selected, Prince Schwarzenberg, who proved schwarzenberg. 
an able coadjutor to the three soldiers who had thus far 
saved the empire. Under his advice the weak-minded 



n6 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Abdication of 
Ferdinand, 
Dec. 2, 1848. 

Francis 
Joseph. 



Hungarian 
Declaration of 
Independence, 
April 19, 1849. 



Russia inter- 
venes. 



Aug. 13, 1849. 



Ferdinand was led to abdicate the throne, and his 
nephew, Francis Joseph, a youth of eighteen, became 
emperor. In this way the pledges which Ferdinand had 
given were regarded as set aside, and the new emperor 
was free to take such measures as seemed proper. 

The measures which seemed proper were the subjuga- 
tion of the rebels. In Hungary the party of entire inde- 
pendence secured control, with Kossuth as dictator. A 
national army was raised, and its early operations were 
favorable to the patriots. Jellacic was driven back on 
one side and Windischgratz on the other. And in the 
first flush of victory, the Magyar legislature declared 
' ' the House of Hapsburg deprived of its dominion and 
banished from Hungary forever. ' ' 

Austria now sought help from a power which was the 
natural friend of despotism. The Russian tsar, Nicho- 
las, besides being himself an autocrat, saw plainly that 
free Hungary would at once mean free Poland; so he 
very readily responded to the request of the Austrian 
emperor by marching a powerful army into Hungary. 
The Austrian armies then moved anew against the rebels, 
and this time the victory was won. The Hungarian 
general-in-chief, Gbrgey, already disaffected with Kos- 
suth, surrendered his army to the Russians. Kossuth, 
with a small detachment, succeeded in crossing the 
Turkish frontier, and he was afforded asylum by that 
country, in spite of the urgent demands of Austria and 
Russia. 

A stern retribution was inflicted on the unfortunate 
Hungarians. Executions by the gallows and by shoot- 
ing were remorselessly enforced. Many of the noblest 
Magyars were thus put to death, and the land was 
handed over to a stern despotism. 

Thus in the Austrian dominions the revolution of 



Eighteen Hundred Forty-eight in Austria. 1 17 

1S48 had failed. The constitutions so freely promised 

by Ferdinand, when he was in terror from the insur- F ail u r eof 

' the revolution 

gents, were all cancelled. The empire was not dis- throughout 

l central 

solved. " The pernicious principle of nationalities," as Europe. 
Metternich had called it, was crushed. Italy, Hun- 
gary, Bohemia were once more under the iron heel of 
the German Austrian, and Germany again recognized 
Austrian headship in the old Confederation. Things 
political were back in the year 18 14. 

One social change, however, remained as almost the 
sole relic of the revolution. The Austrian National 
Assembly, during its few months of troubled existence, 
had freed the peasants from feudal burdens, and con- Permanent 

• results 

verted them into free landed proprietors. They could 
not be reenslaved, and so, as generally in Germany, the 
peasantry had made a solid gain. 

The revolution had done one thing more. It had 
shown plainly how national autonomy and constitutional 
freedom could not be won. It remained for the patriots 
to wait patiently and gather their forces for a wiser 
effort. 

SUMMARY. 

The Austrian dominions include many races and languages. 

In 1848 Hungary revolted under Kossuth and demanded 
separation from Austria except as to the king. 

Bohemia imitated Hungary, but was soon subdued. The 
same is true of Italy. 

The Slavs were encouraged by Austria to revolt against the 
Magyars, and Hungary was conquered by Russian aid. 

Ferdinand was persuaded to abdicate and Francis Joseph 
became emperor. 

The revolution failed throughout central Europe, but not 
until the Austrian peasants had been freed from feudal burdens. 
This was a substantial, permanent gain. 



CHAPTER X. 



DISUNITED ITALY. 



What Italy is. 



Ramsay, 497. 



We are quite apt in America to form an inadequate 
notion of Italy, because we too often give our attention 
to some one phase of the subject to the exclusion of 
others. The name to many will suggest primarily, for 
instance, plastic art, or architecture, or archaeology. It 
is true that the art treasures of Florence and Rome are 
priceless, and that there are magnificent cathedrals and 
palaces; but these are combined with a depth of squalid 
poverty rarely found elsewhere in Europe, and the glori- 
ous landscapes and picturesque architecture must be 
interpreted often as animated with human misery and 
filth which are far from poetic. 

Perhaps one thinks of Italy as the land of the ven- 
detta, the stiletto, the bandit — the land of jealousy and 
revenge. But, in fact, there is ' ' scarcely a more inof- 
fensive and amiable people than the Italians." It is 
hardly safe to judge of a nation by the laborers whom 
we import for the coarsest of coarse toil. 

Some of us, realizing that in Italy there are more 
priests to the square mile than in any other land, at once 
infer the predominance of that pet bugbear of the 
American democracy — "priestcraft." In truth, how- 
ever, Italy is thoroughly leavened with rationalism. Few 
lands have legislated and acted so audaciously against 
the Church. 

In this last fact our enthusiastic Protestants see a com- 
plete break with "Romanism," and dream of a new 



Disunited Italy 



119 



Italy which shall be vigorously Protestant. Possibly the 
dream may come true; but it hardly seems likely. At 
present only about two per cent of the nation are non- 
Catholic. Victor Emmanuel, to the day of his death, 
hoped for reconciliation with the pope and for absolution. 
Italy is a land of contrasts. It can only be under- 
stood by a comprehensive study. Of course, in this 




Church of St. Mark, Venice. 



brief sketch time is lacking for more than a hasty glance. 
But it will be desirable to cover some half dozen points: 
(1) What Italy had been before the nineteenth century 
opened; (2) what it was in 1815; (3) what the Italian 
patriots wanted; (4) how they set out to get it and 
failed; (5) how they set out to get it and succeeded; 
(6) what they have done with nationality and freedom. 
The last two points will fall in a subsequent chapter. 
If we should read the story of Italy going no farther 



120 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



What Italy 
was before the 
nineteenth 
century. 



Great names. 

Thus the first 
discoverer of 
American lands 
for each of the 
great nations 
which after- 
wards settled 
the New World, 
Spain, France, 
and England, 
was an Italian. 



Republics. 



San Marino. 



Foreign rivalry. 



back than the Middle Ages, we should find some quite 
obvious facts. 

Italy has been fertile in great men. In literature, 
Dante, Petrarch, and Tasso at once are suggested. In 
science and art, there are Galileo, Michael Angelo, Le- 
onardo da Vinci, Raphael; in social reform, Savonarola 
and Giordano Bruno; in geographical discovery, Co- 
lumbus, Verrazano, Cabot; in war and statecraft, Napo- 
leon Bonaparte. 

Italy has been fertile in republics. In the turmoil of 
the Middle Ages there arose a host of free municipali- 
ties, turbulent, quarrelsome, but, on the whole, self- 
governing. Some of these became very rich and pow- 
erful — Venice and Genoa in particular. The most of 
them gradually lost their liberties, and either became 
despotisms, like Florence, or were merged in some 
greater power. Venice and Genoa survived until the 
end of the eighteenth century. One of this medieval 
cluster still exists — the independent republic of San 
Marino. This little town of 8,000 people is an odd 
medieval petrifaction in the midst of our nineteenth 
century. Perched amid the Apennines, it has kept 
its freedom through all the changes which have swept 
over the peninsula. It was not overthrown in the 
past, because nobody particularly cared to attack it. 
It is preserved now partly because of the respect 
which modern and liberal Italy has for free institutions, 
and partly because the Italians are rather proud of its 
antiquity. They regard it as an interesting freak. It 
is bound to Italy by a treaty of friendship made in 
1872. 

Another characteristic historical fact is this: For 
many centuries the peninsula was an object of rivalry 
to the Germans, the French, and the Spaniards. The 



Disunited Italy. 



121 



contests of these nations kept the land in confusion 
and kept it from consolidation. 

And finally, Italy has been the seat of the papacy. 
This has exerted a unique influence in the position of the 
peninsula as related to other lands, and of course at the 
same time has made ecclesiastical influence especially 
powerful. 

The general tendency of the political conditions which 
prevailed through many centuries was to keep Italy 
divided into numerous jealous and jarring portions. 
And with the decadence of the republics there was a 
steady tendency to despotic government. 

The great feature of Italian politics in the present 
century has been the fact that it has been possible 
for Italian politics to exist at all. And this has been 
brought about by the fervent desire of Italians for 
national union. This of course has been distinctively an 
Italian idea. The movement for liberal government 
Italy has shared with the rest of Europe. 

The idea of Italian unity is not new with this century. 
It was a dream of Dante, of Petrarch, and even of the 
worldly wise Machiavelli. Statesmen had tried to real- 
ize it, and soldiers had fought for it. But the time was 
not ripe. The dream was merely a dream — the idea 
of an individual now and then, the scheme of a plotter 
here or there. It was not till the nineteenth century 
that it really became impressed in the national conscious- 
ness as a definite popular aspiration. And this result 
was due more than all else to the rule of Napoleon 
Bonaparte. 

At the outbreak of the French Revolution Italy was, 
like Germany, a real political patchwork. But unlike 
Germany, there was in Italy not even a semblance of 
union. The Holy Roman Empire was far from holy, it 



The Papacy. 



What Italian 
patriots have 
wanted. 



The Idea of 
Italian unity. 



Italy before 
Napoleon. 



122 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

was scarcely Roman at all, and it was hardly an empire. 
Still it did in some fashion serve to remind men that 
German people really belonged together. The Diet 
continued to meet, the head of the House of Hapsburg 
was nominal emperor. But there was not even such 
a figment of a united Italy. Venice and Genoa were 
independent republics. Milan with Lombardy belonged 
to Austria. The pope ruled his secular states in the 
center of the peninsula, and the rest was divided. There 
were two kings — in Piedmont and in Naples — and a 
cluster of petty dukes. 
Italy under But Napoleon changed all this. He conquered the 

Napoleon. 

whole peninsula. The northwest, with Genoa, Turin, 
Florence, and Rome, was annexed to France outright. 
The northeast, including Milan and Venice, was formed 
into a kingdom of Italy, of which Napoleon was king. 
And the south was the kingdom of Naples, over which 
were, first, Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's ill-starred 
brother, and afterwards Napoleon's brother-in-law, Murat. 
These three fractions were not far from equal in size. 

In this way Italy became accustomed to several new 
things, all of which paved the way to a desire for union. 
In the first place, the whole peninsula for some years 
acted with a common political purpose. That this pur- 
pose was the interest of France, not of Italy, mattered 
little. It was the main thing that the Italians should 
act together, no matter for what end. Again, the north- 
ern portions, especially, were administered by the 
French system — a system which implied unity, efficiency, 
and intelligence. The government may have been for- 
eign, but that was not a new fact to the Italians; and 
foreign or not, it was certainly in most respects a 
good government. And to the habit of unity in action 
and orderly government were added the new ideas of 



Disunited Italy. 123 



the French Revolution — equality before the law, the 
destruction of privilege, admission of all to public em- 
ployment. Thus the Italians learned democracy. 

Out of all this came a burning desire that Italy should 
be free and united. There was awakened a vivid con- 
sciousness that there was a nation of Italy; and there 
was impressed deeply a loathing for absolute govern- 
ment. These two ideas were not present always in the 
same minds. Some Italian patriots were not republicans 
or constitutionalists. But all the latter were devoted to 
the union of Italy. 

It was the ardent hope of many Italians that the Con- The Congress 
gress of Vienna would recognize the new aspirations of 
their sunny land, and would form some sort of a united 
Italy; but that extraordinary body was not greatly given 
to satisfying national aspirations. The division of the 
spoils was what busied the assembled potentates. It 
was a convention of the kites and the crows; and Italy 
was to them only a lump of luscious carrion. And so 
once more the fair peninsula was parceled out among 
the petty princelings who had before misruled it. The 
pope was given again the lands which he claimed as the 
patrimony of St. Peter. The infamous Ferdinand came 
back to the throne of Naples. Napoleon's Austrian 
wife, Maria Louisa, became Duchess of Parma. In 
Tuscany and Modena and Lucca, the Lilliputians were 
crowned anew, and the House of Savoy was restored to 
authority in Piedmont. 

But in this general restoration of "legitimate" dynas- Theold 
ties, the victorious despots were careful not to restore re P ubhcs - 
the famous old Italian republics. Venice, with Milan 
and Lombardy, became the property of Austria. Genoa 
was annexed to Piedmont. Republics were not in good 
odor at Vienna. 



124 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Character of the 
restoration. 



Prohyn, 12. 



Probyn, 31. 



Dissatisfai tion. 



The Carbonari. 



The reactionary governments were despotic, it goes 
without saying. Austrian influence was predominant at 
every court, and the policy of Metternich was dominant. 
That policy was well expressed in the remarks of the 
emperor to the professors of the University of Pavia : 
" Know, gentlemen, that I do not desire cultured men, 
nor studious ones, but I wish you to form for me faithful 
subjects devoted to me and my house." And the policy 
was enforced with pitiless rigor. Disaffection was quelled 
by prompt violence, and was punished by wholesale and 
bloody executions. In 1828, for example, there was a 
petty rising in a portion of the kingdom of Naples. It 
was put down with ease. Twenty insurgents were at 
once shot without trial. Twenty-six others were con- 
demned to death. They were executed, " and their 
heads were displayed in the villages where they had 
lived, and in front of the houses inhabited by their wives, 
mothers, children, or other relations. " 

And in most of Italy government was corrupt as well 
as cruel. Piedmont was an honorable exception. In 
that kingdom the administration was honest, frugal, and 
efficient. And thus was paved the way to such respect 
for the House of Savoy as made it ultimately the only 
hope of united Italy. 

The new ideas which the dawn of the nineteenth cen- 
tury had brought were cruelly disappointed by the settle- 
ment of Vienna. And there followed a general discon- 
tent and ferment for many years. Denied expression in 
the ordinary modes of free political action, the Liberal 
opposition was diverted into the channels of secret revo- 
lutionary societies. Of these the most prominent was 
the Carbonari (charcoal burners). This society was 
organized on the model of the Freemasons, and extended 
its ramifications into all parts of the peninsula. And 



Disunited Italy. 125 



under its auspices there were repeated but futile 
attempts at insurrection. 

Among the Carbonari in 1830 was a young Genoese, 
Joseph Mazzini. Dissatisfied with the management of 
the order, he organized the Society of Young Italy. Young Italy. 
The threefold object was, united Italy, the Italian re- 
public, and aid to republicanism throughout Europe. 
Mazzini thereafter was a prominent and influential 
factor in the liberal movement. 

One great difficulty with the Italian patriots was the 
discord among them. All agreed in the desire for 
national unity. But what form should it take? Some 
would have a union under the king of Piedmont. Plans of union. 
Others, like Mazzini, aimed at a republic. A third fac- 
tion desired a federation with the pope at the head. 

In 1846 Cardinal Mastai-Ferretti was elected pope, as 
Pius IX. And he electrified the Liberals by adopting a a liberal pope, 
most advanced policy. A general amnesty was pro- 
claimed for political offenses. Reforms in government 
were introduced. Education was encouraged. And 
when the revolution broke out in 1848, he granted a 
constitution for the papal states. There was for a time 
the wildest enthusiasm for Pio Nono. There seemed to 
be impending an irresistible alliance between the Church 
and the Liberals. And free Italy with the pope as 
president seemed more than a possibility. 

Early in 1848 the general uneasiness in Italy culmi- 
nated in a determined demand for constitutional gov- 
ernment in the various states. Insurrection in Naples in 
January compelled the king to grant a constitution. Naples, 01 ' " '" 
This example was followed by Tuscany, by the papal J anuai >- iS * 8 - 
states, and by Piedmont. The last named alone sur- 
vived, and has permanent interest as being the basis of 
the present constitution of the kingdom of Italy. 



126 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

General Italian These efforts for reformed government were suddenly- 
war on Austria. • i lt 1 , , • 

given a new turn by the general revolutionary move- 
ment which was precipitated by the February days in 
Paris. When news came to Italy of the insurrection of 
March 13, in Vienna, and of the flight of Metternich, 
the peninsula was in flames instantly. The question now 
was national union. And that meant that the Austrians, 
who were encamped in the fairest provinces of the north 
and whose arms and policy had maintained absolutism 
since 18 15, must be expelled. Milan and Venice re- 
volted, and Charles Albert, the king of Piedmont, 
promptly espoused their cause and moved his troops to 
their aid. Every other Italian government was com- 
pelled to follow the same course, and from Naples and 
the papal states, as well as the duchies, soldiers poured 
into Lombardy to aid the Piedmontese king. Mean- 
while the Austrian monarchy seemed crumbling to 
pieces. In Hungary and Bohemia and Vienna, as well 
as in Milan, the insurrection was triumphant. Free 
Italy seemed in sight. Constitutional government had 
been won. The Austrians were all but expelled. And 
Italian union must follow. 

SUMMARY. 

Italy is famous for its great men, its republics, for the 
foreign rivalry for possession of it, and as the seat of the 
papacy. . 

The idea of Italian unity is as old as Dante. That it has 
been realized is due to the rule of Napoleon, who conquered 
the whole peninsula. 

After 1815 Austrian influence predominated throughout 
Italy. 

Pius IX. became pope in 1S46 and inaugurated a liberal 
policy. 



CHAPTER XI. 

REACTION IN ITALY AND FRANCE. 

The focal point of the revolution of 1848 in Italy The war in 
was in Lombardy. The rising tide of national sentiment Lombard y« 
had driven the Austrians from Milan and had rallied the 
troops of all the Italian states to complete the conquest. 
The Austrian commander, Radetzky, took refuge in the 
strong fortresses of the quadrilateral (Mantua, Verona, 
Peschiera, Legnano). And here with undaunted resolu- 
tion he prepared to win back his provinces. 

The first ominous event was the treachery of the king Defection. 
of Naples. He had been forced to send his army to 
Lombardy by the overwhelming tide of public opinion. 
But the Neapolitan general was ordered not to enter 
Austrian territory, and as soon as the king was able, he 
recalled his troops altogether. This defection weakened 
the Italian force in Lombardy at a most critical moment. 
And the soldiers of the pope also, although at first sent 
to the border of the Roman states in order to aid 
the general crusade against the Austrians, were held 
back and ultimately prevented from taking any part 
in the campaign. Thus deprived of resources on which 
there had been confident reliance, and being also inferior 
in military ability to his opponent, Charles Albert's 
successes in the field were brief enough. In July he 
was utterly defeated at Custozza and driven entirely out J uly - l848 - 
of Lombardy. Radetzky, having regained Milan, com- 
pelled Charles Albert to sign an armistice, and then 
turned his attention to restoring Austrian authority. 

127 



128 



Europe in the Nineteenth Ce?itnry. 



March 23, 1849. 



Austrian 
victory. 



Naples. 




The Nineteenth 
Cent'rv. 



Everywhere he was successful except in the city of 
Venice. In 1849, Charles Albert renewed the struggle, 
but in vain. In March he was finally overthrown at 
Novara, and only saved his dominions from subjugation 
by abdicating in favor of his son Victor Emmanuel. The 
old king went into exile and died, broken hearted, a few 
months later. There remained in arms against Austria 
only the republic of Venice. The siege of the island 
city was prosecuted with energy, and in August was 
brought to a successful issue. Manin, the Venetian 
leader, with some six hundred others, went into exile. 
The insurrection was crushed, and stern military rule in 
Lombardy and Venetia replaced the brief vista of liberty. 
Meanwhile in Naples King Ferdinand was again 
master. And rebellious Sicily he brought to terms 
by force of arms. Absolutism reigned again in the 
south. Tuscany was reduced by Austrian troops. But 
in Rome the struggle was harder. The pope had 
granted a free constitution and had sent his army to 
aid Charles Albert. But free Rome proved a stormy 
place, and Pius IX., alarmed at the turbulent aspect of 
democracy, fled from his capital and took refuge 
in the dominions of Naples. The Romans at 
once set up a republic, with Mazzini among the 
leaders, and prepared to defend their liberty 
against the force which it was plain would soon 
be brought against them. But the prospect of 
Austrian arms in Rome, and thus of Austrian 
influence predominant through the peninsula, 
was little relished in France, and to forestall the 
Austrians, President Louis Napoleon sent an 
army under General Oudinot to take possession 
of the Eternal City. Although ostensibly com- 
ing to protect Rome against Austrian attack, 



The revolution 
fails. 



Reaction in Italy and France. 129 

the French troops were not welcomed as deliverers, by 
any means, and they had to carry the city by a regu- 
lar siege. Mazzini and Garibaldi made a gallant defense, 
but it was in vain. The republic was subverted, and the 
pope returned as an absolute monarch. One of the first 
acts was to restore the Inquisition, and it was with no 
little difficulty that Oudinot prevented a general pro- 
scription. The French garrison remained in Rome 
until 1870, with the exception of a short time in 1867. 

Thus in Italy the revolution came and went. The 
absolute sovereigns were once more in power. 

Three lessons had been learned. learned 

The Sardinian king could be trusted. Charles Albert 
had thrown himself into the war for Italy against tre- 
mendous odds. He failed, and yielded his throne, and 
shortly his life, as a sacrifice for the good cause. And 
Victor Emmanuel firmly repelled the suggestions of 
Austria to revoke the constitution his father had granted. 
He was true to his honor; and this Sardinian constitu- 
tion remained the sole tangible result of 1848. 

A second lesson to Italy was the utter untrustworthi- 
ness of all the other rulers. All had granted constitu- 
tions, and had solemnly sworn to observe them; all had 
broken their oaths ; all alike were faithless and worthless. 

A third lesson was that Italy could never become a 
united nation while the Austrians remained in the penin- 
sula. 

These lessons were taken deeply to heart; and when 
next Italy took arms it was in the execution of an intel- 
ligent policy which led to complete success. 

The impulse to the revolutionary movement, which France 
shook every throne in central Europe in 1848, came from 
the February upheaval in Paris. For a second time 
France became a republic. In Germany and Austria and 



130 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

Italy the same forces were at work. Popular government 
and national independence were the aim of the people. 
Everywhere the first attack was successful. Govern- 
ments were bewildered, and yielded. But as the months 
passed the energy of revolution was dissipated. The 
autocrats gradually regained their power. Their disci- 
plined armies were loyal, and were too strong for the 
tumultuous forces of insurrection. The reaction swept 
away nearly all the constitutions, nearly all popular 
rights. Europe went back, apparently, to the ideas of 
Metternich. And it seemed only natural that France, 
which was the first to rise against royalty, should be the 
last to yield to the same forces which had struck down 
the rest of the peoples. 

The constitution of 1848 provided for an executive 
chosen by universal suffrage for four years, ineligible for 
the next term; for a National Assembly of one house; 
for a responsible ministry; and for amendment of the 
constitution by the vote of three fourths of the Assem- 
president? oleon bly. And we have seen Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 
elected to the presidency by an overwhelming vote. 

This election was regarded with complacency by many 
of the most liberal leaders. Louis Napoleon seemed to 
have so insignificant a personality that it was likely he 
might be managed with ease. But it turned out that he 
was no tool in the hands of anybody. In the depths of 
his sluggish mind he was quietly aiming to govern 
France without restriction, and the course of events 
powerfully aided his plots. 

The insurrection of the socialists in June, 1848, had 
specter." inspired in France a profound fear of anarchistic con- 

spiracies. Life and property seemed in danger, unless 
the law should keep a firm hand on the elements of 
disorder; and Louis Napoleon stood for order and the 



Reaction in Italy and France. 



131 



The symbol of 
socialism was 
the red flag. 



The May Laws. 



Revision of the 
Constitution. 



Church. As time passed, the fear of the ' ' red revolu- 
tion ' ' increased, and the middle classes began to feel 
that the lowest of the proletariat should be disfranchised. 
This was effected, it was supposed, by the laws of May 
31, 1 85 1, by which the residence required as a qualifica- 
tion for suffrage was raised from six months to three 
years. As it turned out, those who lost their votes 
were not the few thousands of floating workmen at 
whom the law was aimed, but practically all manual 
laborers in a body — some 3,000,000 out of a voting 
population of 10,000,000. 

It was the general wish, as well as the desire of Louis 
Napoleon, that he should be reelected at the end of his 
term. There was no other man sufficiently strong with 
the nation at large to command public confidence. But 
when the Assembly was asked to revise the constitution 
so as to eliminate the disqualifying clause, the necessary 
three fourths vote could not be secured. 

Thus the president had two grounds for his indict- 
ment of the National Assembly before the French 
nation. It had destroyed universal suffrage; it had 
refused the nation the opportunity to secure order in 
accordance with the public feeling. 

The president now proceeded to plot for a coitp d' etat. „ 

r * *■ ■* Coup d etat of 

He secured the army by flattery and cajolery. Generals Louis 

J J J . Napoleon, 

whom he could not trust were removed, and their places Dec. 2, 1851. 
taken by those known to be pliable. A group of obscure 
but determined and unprincipled men were gathered — 
St. Arnaud, a soldier without scruples; Maupas, a ser- 
vile administrator of police; Morny, an illegitimate 
son of Queen Hortense, and so a half brother of Louis 
Napoleon. These were given important trusts — St. 
Arnaud the war office, Maupas the prefecture of police. 
The blow was fixed for the "Day of Austerlitz," De- 



132 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century, 



Proclamations. 



The massacre. 



The Second 
Empire. 



cember 2, 1851. When the Assembly met in Novem- 
ber, the president in his message asserted the existence 
of a vast socialist conspiracy. Then it was demanded 
that the May Laws be repealed. This the Assembly 
refused to do, by a narrow majority. And in the early 
morning of December 2, the emissaries of Maupas 
arrested all the leading generals, deputies, and poli- 
ticians in Paris ; and proclamations were issued de- 
claring the dissolution of the Assembly and the restora- 
tion of universal suffrage, and calling for the judgment 
of the nation on the proposition for a new constitution. 
This was copied from the consular constitution of 1799, 
and included the presidency for ten years, a legislature 
of two houses, with executive initiative of legislation, 
and in general a strong government. 

The people were dazed by the suddenness of the 
blow. But resistance was made in the streets of Paris, 
only to be put down promptly by military force. And 
on December 4, when the fighting was actually ended, 
the troops, whether by accident or design, suddenly 
opened fire on the crowds of spectators in the boule- 
vards. Thousands of innocent people, men, women, 
and children, were shot down in cold blood ; and after- 
wards thousands more were arrested and thrown into 
prison or transported. 

The light-hearted Parisians had been inclined to 
laugh at Louis Napoleon ; but after December 4, 1851,. 
he was no longer a subject for jest. 

The election of December 20 returned an overwhelm- 
ing majority for the president's plan — about 7,400,000 
affirmative votes out of 8,000,000. 

The next step was easy. The empire was the logical 
outcome of the coup d'etat, and in November, 1852, it 
was finally decreed by the Senate, and ratified by a 



Reaction in Italy and France. 133 

nearly unanimous vote of the electorate ; and on the , In J ; Sl 4 Napo- 

J leon liad abcli- 

2d of December, 1852, Louis Napoleon was proclaimed ***** in fa „ vol i 

u ' r l of his son. And 

Emperor of the French, as Napoleon III. The second the Bonapart- 
r i ists thus count- 

republic in France was ended. ed the succes- 

1 sion as includ- 

ing the son of 

Permanent Results 0/1848. Maria Louisa. 

The revolution of 1848 was thus ended. In its great Permanent 
aims it seemed to have failed utterly. The Orleans resultsof l8 < 8 - 
monarchy had been displaced in France only to substi- 
tute the empire — which was in every way more danger- 
ous to popular liberty. German unity was not attained. 
Italian unity was yet a dream. Hungarian autonomy 
was not won. In nearly every land the free constitu- 
tions had been overthrown. There were, however, 
some solid results. 

Prussia and Piedmont retained their constitutions, constitutions. 
and thus each put itself in the forefront of the liberal 
aspirations of its nation. 

In Germany it became clear that unity could not be Germany, 
attained by the voluntary surrender of sovereignty on 
the part of the princes, or by the learned schemes of 
pedants. Neither was it possible while Austria re- 
mained a German power. 

In Italy it was equally plain that Austria must be Italv 
driven out, and that Piedmont was the only center of 
sound political life. 

Through central Europe in general one decided 
change remained. The last feudal burdens had been 
removed from the peasants. In some cases the dues The peasants, 
had been abolished outright ; in others they had been 
commuted. In either case the nobility were largely 
impoverished in consequence. 

The peasants in 1848 joined the revolt with little care 
for national unity or for constitutional government. 



134 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

They merely wanted to get rid of the burdens on their 
land. An old picture represents the peasant staggering 
Baring-Gould, under the weight of a half dozen men who are clinging 
to his back. Of these the emperor exclaims, ' ' I live 
on taxes," the soldier, " I pay for nothing," the pastor, 
' ' I am supported by tithes, ' ' the beggar, ' ' I live on 
what is given me," the noble, "I pay no taxes," the 
Jew, "I bleed them all." The peasant cries, "Dear 
God, help me ! I have to maintain all these."* 

As soon as the peasants won what they wanted, their 
zeal for the revolution cooled. They had no sympathy 
with socialism, and were suspicious that republicanism 
tended that way. So they cared little for the collapse 
of the insurrection. 

In the end 1848 was not a failure. It pointed the 
way to the reconstruction of Europe which the following 
generation was to witness. 

SUMMARY. 

The Italian revolution of 1848 centered in Lombardy. It 
was soon crushed by Austria. 

In France, socialistic outbreaks strengthened Louis Napo- 
leon's hold on the people. When the Assembly refused to 
amend the constitution so that he could be reelected, he 
executed a coup d'etat. A year later he became emperor. 

The revolutions of 1848 proved that Austria was prevent- 
ing botli Italian and German unity. The net results of the 
movements were the constitutions of Prussia and Piedmont 
and the removal of feudal burdens from the peasants. 



* Baring-Gould, p. 28, tells of some feudal dues which were vexatious 
rather than burdensome. A farm was charged with from six to ten payments 
— the hearth shilling, the smoke tax, the Shrove Tuesday eggs, the Walpurgis 
tax, the Michaelmas tax, a pfennig for a goose, etc. The total of all was 
about one dollar. 



PART III.— THE THIRD REVOLUTION-RECON- 
STRUCTION OF CENTRAL EUROPE. 

PRELIMINARY. 

The revolution of 1 848 was a general outburst of the character of 
people against privilege and despotism. It lacked defi- Revofution. 
nite leadership and adequate organization. The old 
order had both. And so the revolution failed. Further, 
in the confusion of insurrection, anarchistic elements at- 
tained a dangerous prominence. This frightened and 
repelled many whose sympathies were with popular 
rights. 

The third revolutionary movement took an entirely character of 
different shape. It proceeded in the main under the Re^Jiution 
forms of organized government. It had definite political 
purposes, and it attained them by the intelligent use 
of sufficient means. And it accomplished four great 
results. 

At last Germany became a united nation. This was „ 

J German unity. 

accomplished under the leadership of Prussia, and in the 
way which experience had shown to be the only one — 
the strong hand. Austria was driven out of Germany 
altogether. And the small states were drawn together 
by the force of Prussian military compulsion. The 
isolated and discordant states of the Germanic Confedera- 
tion were welded into a powerful federal empire. 

Italy became a united nation. And this, as in Ger- ItaIian unity 
many, was under the lead of the strongest. Piedmont, 

135 



136 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Austrian 
reform. 



France a 
Republic. 



unlike Prussia, could not accomplish the task single- 
handed. But by shrewd diplomacy, foreign bayonets, 
now French, now Prussian, were brought to the aid 
of Victor Emmanuel. Again the essential condition was 
the expulsion of Austria. And when that incubus was 
removed, the Italians easily threw off the yoke of their 
Bourbon and Hapsburg oppressors, and Italy was free. 
Both Germany and Italy became constitutional mon- 
archies. 

The third great change was the political regeneration 
of Austria. Defeated in two great wars, driven from 
Germany and from Italy, the empire of the Caesars was 
saved from dissolution only by the concession of free 
institutions. Hungary at last gained virtually all for 
which Kossuth had struggled in 1848. And in every 
crown land constitutional government replaced the 
gloomy despotism of Metternich. 

Finally, France, the mother of revolutions, for the 
third time became a republic. The empire of Napoleon 
collapsed ignominiously in battle with Germany. The 
monarchists, in the strife between Legitimist and Orlean- 
ist, failed utterly to agree. The republic was established 
by default, survived by the discord of its adversaries, 
and has become settled in the prudent second thought of 
the majority of the nation. 

Thus central Europe has become transformed. And 
by the series of steps which brought it to pass, there has 
been accomplished nearly all for which patriots toiled 
and suffered in 1848. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE SECOND EMPIRE IN FRANCE. 

Fear of the red specter, the support of the Roman The Em . 
Catholic Church, and ruthless military violence, com- 
bined to raise Louis Napoleon to the imperial throne. It 
was evidently sound policy for him to continue to pose as 
the champion of order and religion. At the same time 
the French people must be dazzled by a brilliant policy 
in diplomacy and war. It would not do if there should 
be time to think. The first empire was at all points the 
model. Only, as Victor Hugo bitterly phrased it, in 
place of Napoleon the Great there was now Napoleon 
the Little. 

But people were slow to learn this last fact. For of 
the two decades in which Louis Napoleon was head success. 
of the French State, the .first was one of unmixed 
success. 

The empire moved smoothly enough. The powerful 
administrative machine of French centralized govern- 
ment was in the hands of the imperialists. The army, 
adroitly officered, and dazzled by the recollection of the 
military renown of the first Napoleon, was loyal to the 
new empire. The great commercial and landed interests 
saw order maintained. And, above all, the other parties 
were thoroughly discredited. The schism between the 
two royalist factions seemed hopeless. In 1851 a futile 
attempt at union had been made. The Count de Cham- 
bord, grandson of Charles X., and heir of the elder 
Bourbon line, was childless. It was suggested that he 

137 



138 



Etiropc in the Nineteenth Century. 



Marriage of the 
Emperor. 



recognize as his heir the grandson of Louis Philippe, the 
Orleanists in turn waiving their claim during the lifetime 
of the count. But the latter refused to permit an appeal 
to popular vote. He was king by the grace of God, not 
by the will of the people. But just then divine right was 
quite helpless. And so the negotiation fell through. 

One of the first concerns of the new monarch was 
a suitable marriage. In his exiled estate poverty had 

often pinched him. He 
had not always been 
scrupulous about little 
matters of ordinary 
morals. He was not 
childless, although he 
had never derogated 
from the dignity of his 
princely blood by con- 
tracting a mesalliance. 
But now he was lifted 
above the sordid cares 
of an adventurer, and 
it was important that 
his family should be 
established. He was 
on the throne of a great 
nation, and to throned families he first looked for a fitting 
consort. But his advances were received coldly. To 
be sure his government was recognized. Europe was 
pleased to see order restored to France. Still, the new 
Napoleon was regarded by the old houses as an upstart, 
and they did not care for a family alliance with him. So 
many generations had passed since the time of the 
robbers and adventurers who were the founders of their 
own ancient royal lines that they felt free to look down 




Napoleon III. 
Born, 1808; President of France, 1848; Em- 
peror, 1852 ; dethroned, 1870 ; died, 1873. 



The Second Empire in France. 



139 



on a modern robber and adventurer who proposed to 
found a new reigning family. 

Thus rejected by his good cousins, the other mon- 
archs, the emperor easily turned to another policy. He 
was the head of a democratic empire. He would make 
a democratic marriage by taking a consort who had 
no royal blood in her veins. In Eugenie de Montijo, a 
Spanish lady of rare beauty whose father had been 
an officer under the great Napoleon, a suitable match 




Costumes, 1855. 



was found. The marriage was solemnized in January, 
1853. And three years later was born an heir of the 
empire, Prince Napoleon Eugene. 

The court of Napoleon III. was planned on a scale of 
great splendor. At each step of his progress toward the 
imperial throne he had copied as closely as possible the 
course of his uncle. And now he did not foreet that 



March 16, 1856. 



140 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century, 



The parvenu 
court. 



The Crimean 
War. 



1853- 



March 27, 1854. 



Napoleon I. had tried to dazzle and please the gay 
Parisians by a magnificent display. The Empress 
Eugenie was peculiarly adapted to such a role. Her 
winning grace of manner and great personal beauty soon 
made her the center of a gay throng which gathered 
about the new sovereigns. Introductions were not diffi- 
cult. The old aristocracy of Europe were somewhat 
shy of this parvenu dynasty, but their place was taken 
by people in ample numbers from all lands, some of 
whom perhaps were not of unquestioned standing at 
home. Americans were always received with especial 
cordiality. And they found the florid life of Paris under 
the second empire so much to their liking that it came to 
be a common saying, ' ' Good Americans when they die 
go to Paris." In one respect the supremacy of the 
French empress was unquestioned. She ruled fashion 
for the world. 

Napoleon had found it convenient in 1851 to. reassure 
Europe as to the supposed military tendencies of a 
Bonaparte. "The empire, " said he, " is peace. " But 
while he had no plans of universal conquest, he still felt 
the necessity of diverting the attention of the French 
people from his despotic rule by a successful foreign 
policy. The pacific methods of Louis Philippe, Napo- 
leon felt, had been too prosaic to win such a nation as 
the French. Accordingly when a quarrel between 
Russia and Turkey drew England into an attitude hos- 
tile to the tsar, Napoleon eagerly took the side of Great 
Britain. The dispute originally turned on very trivial 
matters, but one thing led to another till Russia and 
Turkey came to blows, and in the next year France and 
England declared war on Russia, and the league was 
joined by Sardinia. It was the object of the allies to 
destroy the Russian naval station at Sevastopol, and thus 



The Second Empire in France. 141 

to make it impossible for a Russian fleet to threaten 
Constantinople. The siege was begun in the autumn of 
iSs4, but it was not until the following - autumn that the siege of 

^^ & Sevastopol. 

last defenses were carried. The war was very destruc- 
tive to both sides ; but the French army won the 
renown which Napoleon needed, and he was now ready 
to make peace. It was a triumph of his diplomacy that 
the conference in which the great powers joined was 
held at Paris, so that the new emperor was the central Peace of Paris, 

. l8 5 6 - 

figure. Russia agreed that Sevastopol should be dis- 
mantled, and that the Black Sea should be neutralized 
to the war ships of all nations. 

Napoleon's next measure of foreign policy was aimed 
at Austria, and had for its object the unity of north The war with 

J _ J Austria, 1859. 

Italy. The shrewd policy of Piedmont under Cavour 
had ranged that little nation on the side of France and 
England in the war with Russia. It was the object of 
the Italian minister to secure French aid in expelling 
Austria from the peninsula. Napoleon finally agreed to 
give that aid, under certain secret conditions. The war 
must be begun by Austria. At its close Savoy and 
Nice must be ceded to France. The daughter of 
Victor Emmanuel must be given in marriage to the 
emperor's cousin, Prince Napoleon. In return, Lom- 
bardy and Venetia were to go to Sardinia. Tuscany 
and the papal states were to form a central Italian 
kingdom, and all Italy should be a federation with the 
pope at its head. 

The plan was substantially carried out. Piedmont 1859. 
skilfully provoked Austria to begin hostilities. A 
French army, led by the emperor in person, joined the 
Sardinians and invaded Lombardy. The Austrians 
were defeated in the great battles of Magenta and 
Solferino, and driven into Venetia. But here Napoleon 



142 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



paused, although he had promised that Italy should be 
free to the shores of the Adriatic. The French em- 
peror justly distrusted further military success. He 
feared that even if Austria should still be defeated, 
Prussia would come to the rescue. And the people of 
central Italy had risen against their rulers, and upset 
Napoleon's plans by insisting on annexation to Sardinia. 
An armistice was made, to the overwhelming disap- 
pointment of Italy, and this was shortly followed by a 
definitive peace. Lombardy was ceded to Sardinia. 
Peace of It was agreed that the banished princes should be 

Zurich, 1859. & . r 

restored to their thrones, and that the confederacy 
under the pope should be formed. These two stipu- 
lations could not be carried out. 

Napoleon was now at the height of his power. The 
Prestige of military prestige of France in i8sq was somewhat like 

Napoleon III. . . 

that of Prussia since 1870. And the French emperor 
was credited with a genius which men would have been 
slow to give him before 184S. 

A series of commercial treaties which Napoleon nego- 
tiated put France practically in line with England in the 
Free trade. policy of free trade. And the empire was generally 
prosperous. 

The annexation of Savoy and Nice was not urged in 

Annexation of the summer of 1859, as Venetia remained in Austrian 

Nice, i860. hands. But in the following winter Napoleon consented 

to the annexation of the revolted states in central Italy 

to Piedmont, and in return demanded Savoy and Nice. 

They were conceded as the price of Italian unit}'. In 

fact their population was more French than Italian. 

Here ends the story of the successes of Napoleon III. 

Failures. After i860 there followed a decade of failures, which 

culminated in the overthrow of the empire. 

The American Civil War broke out in 1861, and 



The Second Empire in France. 143 

Napoleon's sympathies were with the Southern States. 
He was inclined to recognize the independence of the 
Confederacy, but could not persuade the English gov- 
ernment to join him, and did not care to do it alone. 
However, the opportunity seemed too good to lose for 
another purpose. He had a scheme for a union of all 
the Latin races under the lead of France. As a pre- 
liminary step he sent an army into Mexico, and, having, Mexico, 
as he supposed, conquered that country, he induced the 
Archduke Maximilian of Austria to accept its throne as 
emperor. But the Mexicans refused to submit, and 
carried on a stubborn war for independence. After the 
United States crushed the Rebellion, Napoleon was 
notified that it would be advisable to withdraw his 
forces from Mexico. He was not prepared to under- 
take war against the American republic, and took his 
troops away accordingly. The Mexicans captured 
Maximilian and shot him. The whole Mexican episode 
was a humiliation to France. 

In 1863 Poland was in revolt against the tsar, and 
Napoleon wished England to join him in behalf of 
Polish independence, but the ministry refused. The 
next year Prussia and Austria attacked little Denmark, 
and now England desired the help of France to protect Poland, 
the integrity of Danish territory. But Napoleon, Denmark, 
nettled by his rebuffs from England, in turn declined. 
And so France had no hand in events which turned out 
to be so significant. 

Meanwhile Germany was rapidly moving toward German union, 
union. In 1866, Prussia and Austria fell into war over 
the spoil they had wrested from Denmark. Napoleon 
intrigued with both sides, hoping anxiously that in the 
turmoil he might add to French territory towards the 
Rhine. But events moved too rapidly for him. In six 



144 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

weeks Austria was shattered. The North German 
Confederacy rose on the ruins of the old Bund. And 
France again lost prestige and gained nothing. 

Meanwhile the domestic situation was threatening. 
The Napoleonic administration was permeated with 
what we know as the "spoils system," and it affected 
France with the dry rot in all public life. And there 
was growing discontent with the unfortunate foreign 

tion of "I70! 11 * policy and the continued despotism. In 1870 the 
emperor yielded to the evident public wish, and granted 
a new constitution. The lower house was to share in 
the power to amend the constitution, and there was to 
be a ministry responsible to Parliament. The empire, 
as established in this new form, was endorsed by 
7,000,000 votes to 1,500,000. This was in May, 1870. 
Two months afterwards France declared war against 

Fail of the em- Prussia. And in two months more Napoleon was a 
prisoner, and a republic was established in Paris. 

SUMMARY. 

The first decade of Louis Napoleon's rule was a success. 
Order was maintained, the people prospered, and the political 
opponents of the empire could not agree. 

In the Crimean War, the emperor allied himself with Eng- 
land, and was the central figure at the making of peace. 

In the Italian war with Austria, French arms were successful, 
and the territory of France was increased. 

The second decade of Louis Napoleon's rule was a failure. 

The Mexican episode ended in a humiliating retreat. 

An attempted intervention in behalf of Poland alienated 
Russia. 

The Austro-Prussian War ended before France could inter- 
vene and everywhere the empire lost prestige. 



pire 



CHAPTER XIII. 

UNITED GERMANY. 

The failure of the attempts at a union of the German 
peoples in 1848 and the year or two following made 
some things rather plain. 

The princes would never unite unless under stress of 
some overmastering power. Each was too jealous of 
his own independent authority, caring more for that than 
for the German nation. 

Neither Prussia nor Austria would yield a particle of 
its sovereignty to the other. Either monarch would 
have been willing to become German emperor. Neither 
would submit to become a subject of the other. 

Austria would not permit its German provinces to 
form part of a German union unless the Austrian Empire 
as a whole should be admitted. But the addition of 
30,000,000 non-Germanic people would itself be de- 
structive of real national unity, and would complicate 
the future of the new empire with interests to which 
the Germans were alien. 

Union could be effected without the assent of the 
princes and without the non-German parts of Austria 
only in case of a general insurrection which should de- 
throne all the rulers. But this had failed in 1848. 
Further, many German nationalists were not republi- 
cans. And insurrection had been discredited in any 
event by a suspicion of socialistic influences. Germans, 
as a whole, wanted nationality, but not anarchy. 

The logic of all this was that German unity could be 
146 



United Germany. 147 



brought to pass only under the lead of Prussia, and that 
implied either the dissolution of the Austrian Empire or 
its expulsion from Germany. And the story of the 
unification of the German nation is only the narrative of 
the orderly unfolding of political events under the im- 
pulse of these logical necessities. 

Kinff Frederick William IV. , who had so theatrically 

. J Prussia. 

put himself at the head of the German nation in 1848, 
and so scornfully rejected the imperial crown in 1849, 
went mad in 1857. His brother William became regent, 
and in 1861, on the death of Frederick William, suc- 
ceeded to the crown. The new king saw clearly the 
means which Prussia must use to work out her destiny, 
and so he sought to make material improvements in the 
army. But the lower house of Parliament, seeing 
nothing beyond taxes, refused to impose the additional 
burden. Then the king dismissed his ministry, and B «smarck. 
summoned as the head of a new cabinet, Otto von Bis- ° ct - s > l862 - 
marck-Schonhausen. 

Bismarck, as a member of the German Confederate 
Diet, had there learned well the lesson that the only 
hope of Germany lay in an anti-Austrian policy. As 
ambassador to Russia and to France, he was familiar 
with the policy and resources of those powers. In 
German domestic politics he was an extreme conserva- 
tive, having a horror of socialism and republicanism, 
and a hearty contempt for constitutional government. 
His feeling was that the people ought to submit thank- 
fully to those who are good enough to rule them. But 
German unity under Prussian leadership was his primary 
aspiration. 

With such ideas Bismarck solved the king's difficul- 
ties easily. He merely disregarded the Parliament, and 
raised the money arbitrarily. It was at this time that 




Bismarck. 
Prince Otto von Bismarck-Schonhausen, born 1815. Prussian Ambassador to Russia, 1853, and to 
France, 1862. Prime Minister of Prussia, 1862. Chancellor of the German Empire, 1871. 
Resigned, 1890. 



United Germany. 149 



he announced the significant doctrine that German re- 
generation could come only by a policy of ' ' blood and "Blood and 
iron." And the reformed Prussian army was to be the 
instrument. 

This was in 1862. Two years later the opportunity Schleswig . 
came for the new instrument to be used. King Fred- Hoistein. 
erick VII. of Denmark was the last of the direct male 
line who was at the same time king of Denmark and 
duke of Schleswig and Hoistein. The union of the 
duchies with the Danish crown was simply personal, and 
as the Salic law applied to their succession, which was 
not the case in Denmark, it was clear that on the death 
of Frederick this union would be dissolved. The 
duchies were largely German and were eager to be 
detached from Denmark. But the Danes naturally de- 
sired to preserve the integrity of their dominions, and 
had been able in 1848 to repel the German attack 
and to put down insurrection. And the five great 

. , • 1 • 1 • c Treaty of 

powers had united in 1852 to guarantee the union 01 London, 1852. 
Schleswig and Hoistein with Denmark under Prince 
Christian of Gliicksburg as successor to Frederick. But 
constant bickering followed. The Duke of Augusten- 
burg, who had renounced his claims to the ducal succes- 
sion in consideration of a money payment, had not 
secured the assent of his family to the arrangement, and 
the German Diet was not a party to the treaty of 
London. This left open a loophole for dissension. And 
when Frederick VII. died, in November, 1863, one of 
the first acts of the new king, Christian VIII., was to 
promulgate a new constitution which closely incorporated 
Schleswig with the Danish monarchy. This led to an 
explosion of German national sentiment, and in Decem- 
ber the troops of Saxony and Hanover, obeying the 
mandate of the German Diet, took possession of Hoistein. 



150 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

But Bismarck had profound plans of his own. He 
intended that Prussian influence should be dominant in 
the duchies, and that the dispute should be a beginning 
of a series of moves which should end in forcing Austria 
out of Germany. But now he needed the aid of that 
power, and so by skilful diplomacy he secured an agree- 
ment with the Austrian emperor for joint action. The 
two powers then demanded of Christian VIII. the abro- 
gation of the obnoxious constitution, and on his refusal 
February, 1S64. the allied armies invaded Schleswig. The Danes made 
a gallant resistance, but were overpowered by their 
strong adversaries. The other signatory powers to the 
treaty of London were willing to negotiate in aid of 
Denmark, but not to fight. And so, finally, the Danish 
king was compelled to sign a treaty ceding unreservedly 
all his rights in Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg to 

Treatv of Vien- . . ._..., ° , 

na, Oct. 30, 1864. the sovereigns of Austria and Prussia jointly. The 
Saxons and Hanoverians were then compelled to leave 
Holstein, and the two duchies were in the hands of the 
conquerors. Bismarck's first move had been made. 
The next move required still more wily diplomacy 
than the first. The duchies must be attached as directly 
as possible to Prussia, and Austria must be forced out of 
German affairs altogether. And this implied war. So 
Bismarck set to work to secure allies. Napoleon was 
persuaded to promise neutrality — doubtless with an un- 
derstanding that France should be recompensed in Bel- 

Aiiiance with g mm or on tne Rhine. Italy finally agreed to join in an 

Italy, April, attack on Austria, in return for Venetia. And eood 
1864. & 

King William was finally convinced that war was 
inevitable. The two powers failed to agree in respect to 
the disposal of the two duchies, and Bismarck then 
opened the question of a revision of the Germanic Fed- 
eration. Hostilities could not long be averted, and 



United Germany. 



151 



Battle of Konig- 
gratz, July 3. 



were precipitated by the Prussian seizure of Holstein. 

The minor German states then armed, at the order of war? 

the Diet, against Prussia. And war began. 

It did not last long. Hanover and Hesse-Cassel June) lS66 . 
were conquered at the first assault, and the main army 
of Prussia invaded Bohemia. The Austrians were de- 
feated from the outset, and on the fatal field of Konig- 
gnitz their main army 
was shattered to frag- 
ments. The war was 
ended in ten days 
after the Prussians 
had crossed the bor- 
der. 

The Italians, mean- 
while, had attacked 
Austria f r o m the 
south, but with very 
different success from 
that which had at- 
tended their allies. 
At Custozza the 
Italian army was de- 
feated, and at Lissa 
the fleet met a similar 
fate. It might have 
gone hard with them 
but for the Prussian 
successes. Still, the 
Italians had done their part by keeping a large Austrian 
force in Italy. 

The terms of peace were an ample justification of Peace of Prague, 
Bismarck's policy. Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, and Nas- 
sau, with Frankfort and Schleswig-Holstein, were an- 




152 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



End of the Ger- 
manic Confed- 
eration. Aug. 

24, 1866. 



The North Ger- 
man Federa- 
tion. 



nexed to Prussia. Thus that kingdom gained nearly 
30,000 square miles and nearly 5,000,000 subjects, with 
the still more important advantage of continuous ter- 
ritory. Venetia went to Italy. The states north of 
the Main were free to form a confederation under the 
lead of Prussia. And Austria retired from German 
affairs altogether, besides paying a war indemnity of 
$15,000,000. 

The day after the Peace of Prague was signed, the 
Germanic Confederation was formally dissolved. Formed 

by the reactionary 
powers at Vienna 
in 18 14, it had been 
intended to pre- 
vent a real German 
union. It was now 
gladly put away by 
all true German 
patriots, and a bet- 
ter and closer 
union took its 
place. The new 
North German 
Federation was a 
federal union with 
constitutional gov- 
ernment. The 
lower house of the 
leo-islature was 

William I., German Emperor. 111 

Born, 1797. King of Prussia, 1861. Emperor of elected by Univer- 
Germany, 1871. Died, 1888. 1 rr t-i 

sal suffrage. I he 
upper house, the federal council, consisted of representa- 
tives from the states in proportion to population. Prussia 
had seventeen out of forty-three. The king of Prussia 




United Germany. 153 



was president of the Federation, with the general control 
of foreign affairs, sharing with the legislature the power 
of declaring war and making peace. Here, then, was a 
real German national government, with a democratic 
legislature and a strong executive. It only remained to 
add the rest of the German states in order to make 
German unity no longer a dream, but a fact. The days 
of confusion were past. The new structure had taken 
definite form. 

Shortly after the Peace of Prague, the South German 

J . South Ger- 

states (Bavaria, Baden, and Wurtemberg) made secret many, 
treaties of alliance with the North German Confedera- 
tion, and in 1867 they were admitted to the Zollverein. 
This course was the natural result of the policy of Napo- 
leon, which had been directed to the acquisition of 
German territory for France. The national spirit was 
awakened in all Germany by this French scheme of 
annexation. The old Napoleonic policy of playing 
Prussia against Austria and maintaining a French pro- 
tectorate over a group of small German states was 
now obsolete. 

Meanwhile in Prussia, Bismarck, by his brilliant suc- 

1 j i.- • t, r • 1 Strength of 

cess, had won over his enemies. By an act of indem- Bismarck, 
nity the legislature absolved him for his unconstitutional 
course with regard to taxes. And there now arose a 
new political party, the National Liberals, who still 
favored constitutional government, but adopted the 
national German policy of Bismarck. 

The various schemes of Napoleon for the aggrandize- 
ment of France proved futile. From a weak neighbor, poieon's dipio- 



Italy, he had succeeded in extorting territory. But the 
French frontier was not restored to the Rhine; Belgium 
was not annexed. The German upheaval had given 
France no gain, and France had no friends. Russia 



macy. 



154 Eiirope in the Nineteenth Century. 

remembered 1854 an d 1863. Denmark had not for- 
gotten 1864. Italy was bitter at the thought of Savoy 
and Nice. England distrusted her late ally. Austria 
owed to France the loss of her Italian provinces. More- 
over, a new and strong nation had arisen on the south 
of the Alps, and now a giant suddenly appeared across 
the Rhine. Thus France relatively sank in the scale. 

Stung by his failures, Napoleon was ready for any 
opportunity to attack the new Germany. The Napo- 
leon dynasty must regain prestige. 

The opportunity came. In 1868 Spain had dismissed 
its Bourbon queen regnant, and since then had been 
The war whh trying to form a settled government. Finally it was 
suggested that the crown be offered to Prince Leopold 
of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a very distant relative of 
the Prussian royal house. The news of his acceptance 
of the candidature aroused a storm of indignation in 
Paris. The king of Prussia was called on by the French 
government to order Leopold to withdraw. This course 
was declined ; but nevertheless in a few days the prince 
withdrew. It would seem that this should have ended 
the matter. But the French government, carried away 
by popular clamor, now insisted that King William 
should give a guarantee against a renewal of the 
candidacy. This was promptly refused, and France 
July 14, 1870. immediately declared war. 

Napoleon expected to form an alliance with Austria 
and Italy. As a preliminary, his troops must first 
penetrate south Germany and insure the neutrality of 
those states. But here came the collapse. The French 
military administration was rotten and inefficient. The 
troops could not be mobilized in time, and so nothing 
was done by way of invasion. Meanwhile the Prussian 
armies were gathered with tremendous energy, and by 



United Germany. 



155 



Sedan, Sept. z, 

1870. 



August the tables were turned. The magnificent 
military machine which had been manufactured by 
Bismarck and Moltke, and which had been tried in two 
wars, was now hurled against France. The impact was 
irresistible. In battle after battle the French armies 
were broken and driven back. Outgeneraled, out- 
fought, cut to pieces, the French armies were crushed 
and scattered. Bazaine was shut up in Metz. Napo- 
leon himself, with 
MacMahon's army, 
was defeated and 
surrounded at Se- 
dan, near the Bel- 
gian frontier, and 
on the 2d of Septem- 
ber was compelled 
to surrender. 

When news of 
Sedan reached 
Paris, the imperial 
government was at 
once overturned, 
and replaced by a 
"Government of 
National Defense." 
The most desperate 
and heroic exertions 
were made to roll 
back the tide of in- 
vasion, but the odds were too heavy. Before the end 
of October Bazaine surrendered Metz with the last great 
army of France, and three months later Paris yielded to October 27, 1870. 
its besiegers. A National Assembly was elected in 
February, and peace was made with heavy loss. Alsace 




Moltke. 

Count Helmuth Kail Bernard von Moltke, born, 
1800. Subaltern in Danish army. Entered 
Prussian army. Chief of staff in war of 1866 
and in war of 1870. Chief Marshal of the 
German Empire, 1871. Died, 1891. 



156 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

Peace of Frank- an d Lorraine were annexed to Germany, and a war 
1871'. indemnity of five milliards of francs ($1,000,000,000) 

was paid by the conquered nation. 

In the meantime, German unity had been made com- 
Tne German plete. The enthusiasm of national spirit brought all 
Germany, south as well as north, shoulder to shoulder 
to resist invasion. And in the joy of victory the 
jealousies which had sufficed to keep Germany asunder 
were broken down. Treaties were made successively 
with the south German states by which the north 
German union was enlarged to include all. And then 
the imperial dignity was tendered to the Prussian king. 
The German federal empire was established, and on the 
1 8th of January, 1871, in the stately hall of mirrors of 
the old palace of Versailles, King William was formally 
proclaimed German Emperor. 

The policy of "blood and iron" was justified by its 
fruits. Austria had been expelled from Germany ; 
Prussia had been extended and had overmastering 
power ; and now the very attack which had been in- 
tended to undo the work of 1866 had, in fact, made 
that work complete. It was the fire of French battle 
and the blood of French defeat which cemented the 
German imperial federation in solid union. 

SUMMARY. 

Germany could be united only by the division or the ex- 
pulsion of Austria. This required force, "blood and iron." 

The joint possession of Schleswig-Holstein by Prussia and 
Austria offered an opportunity for a breach of which Bis- 
marck took advantage and Austria was expelled from Ger- 
many. 

France had lost prestige. In the attempt to regain it, Louis 
Napoleon and his dynasty were overthrown, France was 
crushed, and her misfortunes afforded the opportunity for the 
establishment of the German Empire. 



March, 1849. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

UNITED ITALY. 

Up to the end of the revolution of 1848 the story of 
attempts at Italian unity records almost uniform failure. 
These attempts had been incoherent and spasmodic. 
Their form in the main had been conspiracy and insur- 
rection. And war against Austria was a hopeless attack 
on a stronger power. 

But with the accession of Victor Emmanuel on the 
fatal field of Novara begins a new phase of the history. 
This time it shows how the Italians set out to get liberty 
and nationality, and succeeded. And the new policy 
was statesmanship. 

It had been proved that the Italians could easily enough 
dethrone their despots at home, but alone they were no 
match for the armies of Austria. And so these same Austria 
Austrians were an incubus alike on Germany and on 
Italy. Neither nation could be regenerated until Austria 
was expelled. And to expel Austria, Italy must have 
allies. 

But just as Prussia was the vital center of German 
nationality, so Sardinia was the only free and strong 
embodiment of Italian aspiration. The problem, then, 
which faced Sardinian statesmen was twofold: First, 
to make it plain to all Italian Liberals that Sardinia 
could be trusted; and in the second place, to make such 
combinations with foreign powers as would lead to an 
alliance strong enough to get rid of the Austrians. 

These objects were realized by the firm policy of 
157 



The Problem. 



158 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



Constitutional 
Government. 



Victor Emmanuel and his great statesman, Count Ca- 
vour. 

Cavour was the Bismarck of Italy. His soul was so 
absorbed in the great end to be attained that the means 
were almost a matter of indifference. He was a thorough 
opportunist, always ready to take what he could get, 

to be satisfied with 
part when the whole 
was unattainable. And 
he was keen and wily 
to a fault. 

Of very different tex- 
ture was Mazzini, the 
father of ' ' Young It- 
aly," and the tireless 
"" writer and plotter for 
republicanism and 
union. He was an 
Cavour. enthusiast who knew 

[Reproduced from Harper's Magazine, by 

permission. Copyright, 1S7/.] nothing and cared 

Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, born, 1810. f u- „ £__. ov „ or J 

Educated for the armv. Member of Sar- notning lor exped- 

dinian Legislature. 1852-61, Prime Minis- • Anrl rarihalHi 

ter A Moderate Liberal and opportunist, iciicy. ruiu Vjdnuaiui, 

Died, June 6, 1861. the brilliant revolution- 

ary leader, was a soldier, simple and honest. It has 
been said that Mazzini was the prophet of the revolution, 
Garibaldi its knight-errant, and Cavour its statesman. 

The efforts of the Sardinian movement for unity fall 
into two periods: the period of preparation, from 1849 
to 1859; the period of realization, from 1859 to 1870. 

When Victor Emmanuel received the crown, one of 
his first declarations was that he must maintain the insti- 
tutions his father had granted. The Austrians tried to 
tempt him to abrogate the constitution, but he was true 
to his people; and even when sorely tried afterwards by 




United Italy 



159 



the workings of popular government, he still patiently 
persisted as a constitutional king. The Italians learned 
in time that there was one ruler in the peninsula who 
could keep his word, and whose instincts were not des- 
potic and reactionary. 

The Roman Catholic Church has a peculiar position 
in Italy. As Rome is the seat of the papacy, the influ- 
ence of the clergy has been very strong in political 
institutions. And to relax this grasp of the Church on 
the State has evidently been a prime essential in the 
establishment of 
modern political 
ideas. The Sardin- 
ian government did 
not shrink from the 
task. The Siccardi 
laws of 1850 abol- 
ished ecclesiastical 
jurisdictions and 
privileges, and in 
1854 a beginning 
was made of sup- 
pressing the monas- 
teries. 

When the western 
powers became em- 
broiled with Russia, 
Cavour succeeded in 
carrying Sardinia 
into the struggle as 
an ally of France 
and England. The little Italian state would have found it 
rather difficult to show that it had any immediate interest 
in the Eastern Question. But two objects were gained. 




Mazzini. 

[Reproduced from Harper's Magazine, by per- 
mission. Copyright, 1876.] 

Guiseppe Mazzini, born, 1808. Joined Carbonari, 
1830. Organized " Young Italy," 1831. Lived 
in England from 1842. Rome, 1849. Author, 
conspirator. Died, 1872. 



Church and 
State. 



The Crimean 
War. 



i6o 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Conference at 
Paris, 1856. 



The Sardinian troops acquired valuable experience; and 
Sardinia won the good will of the two great powers. 

When the war was ended, a general European confer- 
ence was held at Paris in 1856, and there for the first 
time the Italian question was presented by Italian states- 
men. As the ally of France and England, Sardinia had 
to receive courteous treatment. Cavour did not then 

succeed in obtaining 
any definite action. 
But he brought the 
claims of his country 
clearly and publicly 
before Europe. 

The next step was 
to secure an alliance 
against Austria. 
England would not 
interfere, so Cavour 
set out to win Napo- 
leon. The emperor 
was inclined to aid 
Italy, partly from 
early associations, 
partly from the de- 
sire to play an important part in international politics. 
He made hard terms. He would help drive the Austrians 
from Lombardy and Venetia. But if new territory was 
to be gained for Sardinia, France must be compensated 
by the annexation of Savoy and Nice, and the parvenu 
dynasty must be recognized by a marriage of Prince 
Napoleon, the emperor's cousin, with the daughter of 
Victor Emmanuel. Each was a bitter sacrifice. Savoy 
was the ancestral land of the Sardinian royal house. And 
there was no prouder family in Europe. But it must be 




Victor Emmanuel. 
Born, 1820. Ascended throne of Sardinia, 1849. 
King of Italy, 1861. Died, 1878. 



United Italy. 161 

done, and so the alliance of France was secured. A 

further condition was that the war must be defensive on 

the part of Sardinia. This Cavour accomplished by 

adroitly aggravating Austria, meanwhile ostentatiously 

arming, until irritated beyond endurance the imperial 

armies invaded Sardinian soil. Then the French war with Aus- 
tria, iosg. 

promptly moved into Italy, Napoleon leading in person. 
The Italians were on fire with enthusiasm. The Sar- 
dinian troops at Montebello and Palestro gave a good 
account of themselves, and at the great battles of Ma- 
genta and Solferino the allies defeated the Austrians and June 4 ami 24. 
drove them out of Lombardy. 

At the first shot of the war, the people of central 

' r r Central Italy. 

Italy were ablaze. In Parma, Modena, Tuscany, and 
Bologna, insurrection broke out. The despots were 
for the last time turned adrift, and the people demanded 
immediate union with Sardinia. 

This was more than Napoleon had bargained for. He 
was willing to give some additional territory to Victor 
Emmanuel. But the idea of a strong state south of the 
Alps was not at all relished by French politicians. And 
now it seemed that the demon of revolution was fairly 
unchained. Moreover, the Austrians were now in- 
trenched within the strong fortresses of the quadrilateral, 
and further French victories were by no means sure. 
And Prussia was ready to come to the aid of Austria if 
matters should go much further. 

Under these circumstances, Napoleon stopped the 

... July 11. 

march of his armies, and negotiated a truce with the 
Austrian emperor, who was also in the field. The pre- 
liminaries then agreed upon were afterwards ratified with- 
out material modification, at the formal treaty of Zurich. Peace of Zurich, 

J _ Nov. 10, 1859. 

Sardinia received Lombardy. Austria retained Venetia. 
The duchies in central Italy were to restore their ex- 



l62 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Italian Union 
Proceeds. 



The Duchies. 



April 2, i860. 



pelled governments, but no force was to be used from 
without to effect this end; and, if possible, a federation of 
all Italy was to be made under the presidency of the pope. 

Napoleon had promised that Italy should be free 
to the Adriatic. As he had not carried out his pledge, 
he was not able at the moment to claim any annex- 
ation of territory for France. 

Deep and bitter was the disappointment of Italy. The 
vision of the promised land had suddenly vanished. The 
Austrians were yet in the peninsula. Italian unity was still 
in the future, and Cavour flung down his office in disgust. 

But, after all, the great obstacles had been put out of 
the way, and the mere logic of events now rapidly con- 
summated the work. The duchies refused to restore 
their rulers, and insisted on union with Sardinia. Victor 
Emmanuel had been politic in dealing with their demand 
for annexation, merely sending commissioners to manage 
affairs provisionally, and putting off any final decision. 
And while Napoleon's negotiations with Austria at 
Zurich were pending, it was doubly necessary to take 
no decided step. The duchies armed to resist interven- 
tion, and quietly persisted in their determination on 
union. Napoleon wavered. The plan of federation 
under the pope proved hopeless. The scheme of a 
kingdom in central Italy for Prince Napoleon was 
equally idle. The emperor was hardly ready to march 
his army against his late ally in behalf of the pope. 
And finally Cavour, who returned to power in January, 
i860, induced him to consent to the annexations, sol- 
acing France with Savoy and Nice. An election was 
held, and Tuscany, Parma, Modena, the Romagna, all 
voted emphatically for annexation to Sardinia, and in 
April the new Parliament met at Turin. A similar vote 
in Savoy and Nice, partly from national predilection 



United Italy 



163 



and partly from French and Sardinian pressure, accepted 
the inevitable transfer to France. 

A long" step had now been taken towards national 
union. Venetia was still Austrian. The pope had yet 
Rome and the southern part of his states. Naples and 
Sicily were still subject to a tyrannical Spanish Bourbon. 
Francis II., indeed, was thoroughly true to the tradi- 
tions of his race — in other words, he was a malignant 
■enemy of all Italian 
aspiration. He plot- 
ted for a reaction 
in the papal states 
and in the duchies, 
in which his armies 
should aid. But 
this notable plan did 
not succeed. "Man- 
ifest destiny ' ' was 
plainly impending 
over southern Italy, 
as well as northern. 
Cavour would have 
preferred delay. It 
would have been a 
great advantage to 
consolidate the ter- 
ritory already won 
and accustom it to 
the orderly work- 
ings of free govern- 
ment before at- 
tempting to assimi- 
late the ignorant masses of the south. But Italian politics 
was in a condition of unstable equilibrium. There were 











t^ 


^ Sfti 




JSJajk,, 




V 


1 ^HBI 


/ 


/ / 3r" 


i 


y 





Garibaldi. 
Guiseppe Garibaldi, born, 1807. In navy. Ex- 
iled, 1834. South America, 1836-48. Insur- 
rection of 1848. Rome, 1849. New York, 1850. 
Took part in war of 1859. Sicily, i860. War 
of 1866. Aided France in 1870. Died, 1882. 



Manifest Des- 
tiny. 



164 Europe in the Nineteenth Ce?itury. 



plots for a Muratist revolution in Naples, which would 
have brought France there as well as to Rome. Delay- 
was dangerous, and so Cavour was induced to consent 
that the south should be won as the duchies had been. 
It would not do for Sardinia to participate openly. 
Expedition of Garibaldi organized an expedition on his own responsi- 

Garibaldi, Mav ° . . 

5. i860. bility, slipped away from Genoa in the night, was not 

seen by the Sardinian navy, and landed in Sicily. The 
island was in arms at once, and by the end of July was 
wholly in Garibaldi's hands. Two months later Naples 
was overrun, and the king was shut up with his army at 
Gaeta. The gallant soldier of the revolution was now 
made dictator. And for a time the situation was critical. 
Garibaldi had no administrative ability at all, and the 
" party of action," who had no concern for expediency 
but were determined to march at once on Rome, were 
in the ascendant. It was now time for Sardinia to 
act. In spite of the threats of Napoleon, the troops 
of Victor Emmanuel entered the papal territory, re- 
duced it to submission, and pushed on into Naples. 
Garibaldi yielded to the king, and the union of Naples 
and Sicily with Sardinia was easily brought about. 
The last stronghold of King Francis fell in the spring 
of 1 86 1, and the last of the Bourbons passed away from 
Italy. 
The Kingdom In January, 1861, elections were held for a Parliament 

Feb. i8,'iS6i. of united Italy, and in the next month Victor Emmanuel, 
King of Italy, met this first National Legislature in the 
Carignano palace at Turin. The liberal constitution 
which Charles Albert had granted to Sardinia in 1848 
was the constitution of the new kingdom. And Cavour, 
as prime minister, set out vigorously on the immense 
task of organizing orderly government in all these lands 
which had so long been misgoverned. But his health 



United Italy 



16.S 



gave way, and in June, in the midst of his triumphs and Death of 
labors, he died. 

Victor Emmanuel patiently followed the path of a 
constitutional king. To organize finance, a national 
army and navy, and to regulate the relations of Church 
and State, was 




a herculean 
task. And, be- 
sides this, Rome 
and Venetia, the 
one garrisoned 
by France and 
the other by 
Austria, made 
obvious the in- 
completeness of 
Italian unity. 
But Italy had 
not long to wait. 
In 1866 Prussia 
needed an ally 
against Austria. 
The compact 
was made, and 
in the brief war in the summer of that year, which first 
showed plainly the power of the new Prussian army, 
Venetia was won and was added to the Italian kingdom. 
The Italian army and navy were not victorious, but their 
diversion sufficed to give the Prussians the preponder- 
ance of force in Bohemia. 

Four years later France was in the throes of her 
deadly struggle with Germany. Every soldier was 
needed at home, and so the garrison of Rome was 
recalled. Victor Emmanuel was ready to act. Napo- 



Conquest of 
Venetia, 1866. 



Occupation of 
Rome, Septem- 
ber 20, 1870. 



1 66 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The capital had 
been removed 
from Turin to 
Florence. 



The law of the 
papal guaran- 
tees is printed 
•in full in 
Probyn, p. 272. 



Italian unity 
completed. 



leon surrendered at Sedan on September 2. September 
8, the Italian army was set in motion for Rome. The 
papal troops yielded, and without bloodshed the Eternal 
City passed into the hands of the Italian nation. A 
popular vote ratified the act of the army, and in Decem- 
ber the Italian Parliament met for the last time in Flor- 
ence. Besides arranging for a transfer of the seat of 
government to the natural capital of the peninsula, this 
Parliament defined the relations of the kingdom to the 
pope. Pius IX. refused to admit that the loss of his 
temporal power was lawful, and declined any accommo- 
dation. The acts of May, 1871, however, took him 
under the protection of Italy, recognized his spiritual 
authority, and provided for a papal revenue from the 
Italian treasury of 3,225,000 lire ($645,000). These 
acts are not yet accepted by the pope, and the papal 
revenue lies untouched in the Italian treasury. 

Thus was completed the task of Italian unity. Italy 
is no longer a mere geographical expression. It is a 
nation, bound together by common blood, common 
language, and common institutions. Free government 
is teaching the people self-control. Despotism no longer 
makes living a humiliation. The Italian people are in- 
spired with a just pride in the story of the arduous and 
heroic struggle for freedom and union. Cavour, Maz- 
zini, Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel, are the national 
heroes. They created a new nation. 



SUMMARY. 

Italy was united by the statesmanship of Cavour. 
A French alliance made the expulsion of Austria possible. 
In 1859 she lost all her Italian states except Venice. 
Garibaldi won Naples from the Bourbons. 
By an alliance with Prussia in 1866, Italy won Venice. 
When Napoleon fell, Victor Emmanuel occupied Rome. 



CHAPTER XY. 



REFORMED AUSTRIA. 

Austria, under Metternich, was in the iorefront of a contrast. 
European conservatism and absolutism. Now it is one 
of the most liberal countries on the Continent. Its 
constitution is more advanced than that of Germany, 
and nearly as free as that of Italy. 

France and Germany have a population practically 
homogeneous. The Austro- Hungarian monarchy is the 
home of a tangle 
of races, a Babel 
of speech, a 
chaos of re- 
ligions. 

Before dis- 
cussing the 
transition from 
the ideas of 
Metternich t o 
the modern po- 
litical institu- 
tions of Austria, it may be well to spend a little time in 
considering its complex social conditions. 

As at present organized, the dual monarchy com- 
prises the empire of Austria and the kingdom of Hun- 
gary, with a total population of about 41,000,000. 

The three main races are the Germans, about 10,000,- 
000; the Slavs, nearly 20,000,000; and the Magyars 
(Hungarians), 7,000,000. Besides these there are about 

167 



Nuremberg 0>p J£^j fc>T C^co^,.' *-K£b«g\ 
Schemoitz 



yVv>wr , \l / o Bofia 




168 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

2,000,000 Roumanians, very many Jews, about half 
a million Italians, a number of Gypsies, and others. 
The Germans are found in all parts of the mon- 
archy, but are especially numerous in the west. The 
Slavs form a broken ring from Bohemia right around to 
the Adriatic. They comprise the Bohemians (Cekhs), 
Moravians, Poles, Ruthenians, Slovenes, Serbs, Croats, 
and others — all speaking Slavic dialects. The Magyars, 
about 7,000,000 strong, are a non- Aryan people, akin 
to the Tatars and the Turks. They claim to be de- 
scended from the Huns of Attila. They are, as was 
said by a Slavic orator in 1848, " an island in an ocean 
of Slavism." And they have strong race prejudices 
against both Slavs and Germans. Latin was the tongue 
used in their Diet until 1844, since which time a vigorous 
agitation has been going on to Magyarize Hungary. 

Transylvania is a typical province in which this eastern 
ethnic confusion is most conspicuous. Its people are 
Roumanians, Magyars, Germans, Gypsies, Jews, Ar- 
menians, Bulgarians, Ruthenians, Greeks. 

The Italians are found mostly in the Tyrol, in Trieste, 
and the vicinity. 

The Austrian portion of the dual monarchy has been 
known since the Thirty Years' War (1618-48) as 
sharing with southern Europe in devotion to the Roman 
Catholic Church. Still, the Austrian sovereigns have 
Religion. resisted the temporal authority of the pope, have in- 

sisted on taxing church property, have kept in their own 
hands the nomination of prelates, and have limited by 
law the publication of papal bulls within the empire. 

By the statutes of 1867 and 1868, religious liberty is 
Austr^under guaranteed, including the independence of Church and 

Mettemich, State, and full libertv of faith and conscience. Civil and 
p. 80. J 

political rights are independent of religion. Any church 



Reformed Austria. 



169 



will be recognized by law, and will have the manage- 
ment of its own affairs, if in its structure and working 
there is nothing illegal or immoral. Besides the Roman 
Catholic Church, six religious bodies are now (1898) 
recognized, including the Old Catholics, the Oriental 
Greek Church, Evangelicals, Armenians, and Jews. 
However, about four 
fifths of the popu- 
lation are Roman 
Catholics, the pro- 
portion in some 
crown lands rising 
to 90 and 98 per 
cent. Substantially 
the same provisions 
of law prevail in 
Hungary. In that 
kingdom about half 
the people are Ro- 
man Catholics, the 
rest being largely of 
Protestant or Greek 
churches. 

As now politically 
organized, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy is a dual 
federation, with a single government for common pur- 
poses, and separate governments for local purposes. 
The common government comprises the crown, the min- 
istry, and the delegations (the parliament). 

"His imperial and royal apostolic majesty," the 
emperor of Austria and king of Hungary, is no longer 
an absolute monarch, but is a modern constitutional 
sovereign. The dignity is hereditary in the House of 
Hapsburg. At Vienna, Francis Joseph is emperor. 




Francis Joseph. 
Born, August 18, 1830. Ascended Austrian throne, 
1848. Crowned King of Hungary, 1867. 



The Constitu. 
tion. 



The Crown. 



170 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The Ministry 



The delega- 
tions. 



The Austrian 
legislature. 



At Buda-Pesth he is king. He exercises authority only 
with the cooperation and consent of the legislatures and 
through the ministry. 

In the ministry there are, for the common purposes of 
the dual monarchy, three departments — foreign affairs, 
war, and finance. The ministers are responsible to the 
common legislature. 

The "delegations" consist of sixty members from 
each of the two legislatures, that of Austria and that of 
Hungary. Each sixty contains forty from the lower 
house and twenty from the upper house. They are 
appointed for one year, and meet alternately at Vienna 
and at Buda-Pesth. The two delegations meet sep- 
arately, and exchange communications in writing. If 
after three such interchanges they are not agreed, the 
entire one hundred twenty meet in joint session and 
decide by a majority vote. 

The Austrian legislature (reichsrath) has two houses. 
In the upper house are certain nobles as hereditary 
members, a few prelates as official members, and a num- 
ber of life members nominated by the emperor on the 
ground of distinction in art or science, or from great 
service to the State. 

The lower house is formed in a very complex way. 
There are three hundred fifty-three members chosen, 
some directly and some indirectly, by citizens not less 
than twenty-four years old and possessed of certain small 
property or personal qualifications. There are four classes 
of constituencies. The first class comprises the peasants 
and small landholders in the rural districts. Each five 
hundred inhabitants choose an elector, and the electors 
choose a representative. There are one hundred 
thirty-one rural representatives. The second class in- 
cludes the towns, with 1 1 6 members. Then the cham- 



Reformed Austria. 171 

bers of commerce in the cities and large towns have 
twenty-one members, and the large landholders have 
eighty-five members. In this last class, women in pos- 
session of their own property may vote. 

This system of class representation will doubtless soon 
be replaced by a uniform plan of universal suffrage. 

The crown in Austria administers government through 
a responsible ministry of eight departments. 

In each of the Austrian crown lands (provinces, cor- 
responding to the states of our Union) there is a local 
Diet (like our state legislature) entrusted with a large 
measure of authority. 

The Hungarian Legislature is also one of two houses. The 
The upper house is not very different in structure from ^vefnment. 
that of Austria. The lower house has four hundred 
fifty-three members chosen directly by male citizens 
twenty years of age and having a small property or 
personal qualification. There is in Hungary a respon- 
sible ministry of nine departments. 

Transylvania is organically united with Hungary. 
Croatia and Slavonia are united with Hungary for cer- 
tain common purposes, but retain separate local Diets 
with large powers. 

It will thus be seen that Hungary has thorough 
national autonomy, and that in the whole monarchy 
there is constitutional government based very nearly on 
universal suffrage. 

These constitutional and national ideas are precisely Reaction after 
what the revolutionists demanded in 1848. The over- x 4 ' 
throw of that revolution restored the empire to its 
condition under Metternich. The constitution granted 
to Hungary in 1848 was declared forfeited. The consti- 
tution promised to Austria in 1849 was never in force, 
and in 1852 it was formally abrogated. Absolute govern- 



172 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



Loss of 

Lombardy, 

1859. 



Reform 
attempted. 



Magyar oppo- 
sition. 



The crown 
yields, 1867. 



JuneS, 1867. 



merit was restored, and a determined attempt was made 
to Germanize the whole empire. The only result of the 
revolution seemed to be that the peasants were freed 
from their feudal burdens. 

But in 1859 the Austrian army was overthrown by 
France and Sardinia, and Lombardy was lost. Large 
numbers of Magyars served in the Italian army, and the 
treasury was practically bankrupt. 

After peace was made, the government, seeing at last 
the absolute necessity of popular support, set out to 
organize reforms. A Parliament was formed for the 
entire empire, and provincial Diets were organized, while 
the old constitution was restored to Hungary. 

But the Magyars were not satisfied. Their Parliament 
was subject to that at Vienna, and thus the Hungarian 
autonomy was very incomplete. Accordingly, under 
the lead of Deak, the Magyars declined to accept the 
constitution, and conducted a peaceable but effective 
opposition by refusing to pay taxes or to take part in the 
Parliament. 

Then came the collapse of the empire at Koniggratz 
in 1866. The empire was perilously near dissolution, 
and it was only saved by complete surrender to the pop- 
ular demands on the part of the imperial government. 
Deak made a treaty which included the present dual 
system, and in accordance with it Francis Joseph was 
crowned at Buda-Pesth in 1867, as king of Hungary. 
A full amnesty was granted to all who had participated 
in any revolutionary movements. Oblivion of the past 
and popular freedom for the future were plainly the only 
hope of the empire. 

The demands of the Magyars were complicated by 
the counter-demands of the Slavs, over whom the former 
claimed authority. In 1868 these disputes were settled 



Reformed Austria. 



173 



by uniting Transylvania organically to Hungary, and by 
federating with that kingdom Croatia and Slavonia, as 
above explained (p. 171).* 

Since 1866 Austria- Hungary has been expelled from 
Germany. Its interests, therefore, are mainly in the 
east. It is vitally concerned in the disposal to be made 
of the lands now or formerly belonging: to the Turk- The eastern 

J . . interests of 

ish Empire. These lands are largelv inhabited by Slavs, Austria- 

1 1 r a • 11 Hungary. 

and so the race elements 01 Austria are keenly con- 
cerned. Slav and Magyar, Slav and German, German 
and Magyar, are mutually jealous and antagonistic. The 
extension of territory in the east would increase the 
proportion of Slavs in the empire. On the other hand, 
it would, of course, increase the population and power 
of the monarchy. 

In 1876 there were Slavic revolts against Turkey, fol- 
lowed in 1877 by the war in behalf of the Slavs, waged Bosnia and 
by Russia against the sultan. In that war the Magyars 
sympathized with their kinsmen, the Turks, while the 
Austrian Slavs favored the Russians. At the Congress 
of Berlin, in 1878, a general settlement of the Balkan 
peninsula was effected. Several free Slavic states were 
formed, and the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina 
were put under the direction of Austria- Hungary. They 
were occupied by that power in 1879. The Austrians 
have given honest and intelligent administration to the 
two provinces. Peace and law and secure commerce are 
assured for them, and they have prospered accordingly. 

Another important step in international politics was 
the alliance with Germany, formed in 1879, supple- The Triple 
mented soon after by the alliance with Italy. Austria had 
nothing to gain and much to fear from a general Euro- 



Herzegovina. 



Alliance. 



* Kossuth, living quietly in exile at Turin, declined to accept the amnesty or 
to recognize a Hapsburg as king of Hungary. 



174 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Pan-Slavism. 



pean war. Its race conditions and new constitutional 
institutions were in a state of unstable equilibrium. 
Nothing seemed so essential as time and peace. Ac- 
cordingly, the league with the other two powers is pri- 
marily a league of peace. If France should be able to 
find allies against Germany, it would be very likely that 
a general convulsion would follow. But while the three 
central powers hold together, a French war will be un- 
likely. 

The main internal question which seems fraught with 
danger to the empire is centered at Prague. The Cekhs 
are by no means satisfied with their political status, but 
insist on the autonomy of the ancient kingdom of Bo- 
hemia, as a logical result from the precedent set in the 
case of Hungary. The emperor is in fact king of 
Bohemia, although the kingdom is merged in the Aus- 
trian Empire. The main difficulty in the case is the 
commingling of races, as Bohemia has about fifty per 
cent more Cekhs than Germans. The Germans have 
been the dominant race, and the feeling against them 
is bitter. On the other hand, they know that if Bo- 
hemia were a separate kingdom they would be quite 
swamped in the sea of Cekhs. The party known as the 
' ' Young Cekhs ' ' has used every effort to rouse national 
feeling, and so violent has been the temper displayed 
that near the end of 1893, Prague was put under mar- 
tial law. 

Another idea which may menace the perpetuity of the 
empire is that of Pan-Slavism. The Slav race is politi- 
cally disunited. The great Russian nation is, of course, 
the leading portion. The Poles are divided, partly in 
Russia, partly in Austria, partly in Prussia. Many 
other Slavic peoples are in the Austro- Hungarian do- 
minions, and more yet are in the Balkan peninsula, 



Reformed Austria. 175 



partly as independent nations, partly subject to Turkey. 
The idea of Slav union is one which appeals to the 
imagination, and which of late years has won much in- 
terest. In 1868 a Slavic Congress was held at Moscow, 
with the object of drawing together the disunited por- 
tions. An unforeseen obstacle appeared there in the 
mutually unintelligible Slav dialects. 

A Pan-Slavic union would mean the predominance of 
Russia, or a great federation of the Slavic lands. But 
the Slavs are a very democratic people, and exceedingly 
fond of liberty. For that reason they are not disposed 
to yield to Russian absolutism. And Pan-Slavism in 
any form would mean the disruption of Austria. So 
the idea seems at present a visionary one. Still, it is in 
the line of 'the political union and independence of 
nationalities which has characterized the century. It 
may be an achievement of the twentieth century ; but if 
realized it will involve profound rearrangements of the The future 
present social and political condition of eastern Europe. 

The dual monarchy has in general aligned itself with 
modern political thought, but it is yet in a condition of 
unstable equilibrium. Both its strength and its weak- 
ness lie in its conglomerate race structure. Strength, 
because separation would make each little portion an in- 
significant power. Weakness, because the tendency is 
for discord to paralyze action. The future of Austria- 
Hungary is one of the problems of European politics. 

SUMMARY. 

Austria is a medley of languages, races, and religions. 
Politically Austria-Hungary is a dual federation, each part 
of which is a constitutional monarchy. 

Austria after 1866 yielded to the demands of Hungary. 
The Triple Alliance is primarily a league of peace. 
Austria is threatened with disruption by race strife. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



FRANCE AS IT IS. 

The empire of Napoleon III. collapsed at Sedan. 
The Govern- When news of this disaster reached Paris, the imperial 

mentofNa- l 

tienai Defense, government, together with the national legislature, 

simply disappeared. 
The republic was 
tumultuously pro- 
claimed, and a pro- 
visional - government 
of national defense at 
once organized. It 
was this government 
which energetically 
struggled against 
the invaders, raising 
army after army, and 
defending Paris till 
famine conquered it. 
When at last further 
resistance was hope- 
less, an armistice was 

lHIERS. 

Louis Adolphe Thiers, born, 1797. Lawyer and made with the Ger- 

journalist. Author of " History of the French , , 

Revolution" and "The Consulate and Em- mans, and elections 

pire." Prime Minister under Louis Philippe. 1 1 1 r ,, , 

President of the French Republic, 1871-3. Held tor a National 

Died, 1877. . , . . 

Assembly. I his 



The National 
Assembly. 

Feb. 12, 1847. 




body convened at Bordeaux, and, laying aside the 
question of the future form of government, organized 
for the time being by choosing Thiers head of the 



176 



France as It Is. 



177 



State. The old man made the best terms possible 
with the Germans. Alsace and eastern Lorraine France 
had to lose. German garrisons remained in France 
until the war indemnity ($1,000,000,000) was paid. 
Three years were given for this, but so vigorous were 
the efforts of the French people that the last German 
soldier withdrew in September, 1873. 

But when the war with Germany was ended, peace 




The H6tel de Ville, Paris. 

was not yet restored. The mob of Paris, including the 
National Guards, rose against the National Assembly 
which Thiers had convened at Versailles. The capital 
fell into the hands of these revolutionists, who at once 
organized under the authority of the Commune of Paris. 
The national government brought up the regular army 
to restore order, and the second siege of Paris was more 
horrible and destructive than the first. Prisoners were 
massacred by wholesale on both sides, and when the 



The Commune. 



i 7 8 



Europe in the Nineteenth Cenhny. 



Thiers Presi- 
dent. 

Aug. 31, 1871. 



communists were finally overcome, they left the palaces 
of the great city in flames. The Tuileries and the 
Hotel de Ville were consumed, and the Louvre, with its 
priceless treasures of art, was barely saved. The com- 
munists were given no quarter, and the frightful days 
of the spring of 1871 in Paris made a third lesson to 
France of the horrors of anarchy. The Reign of Terror 
of 1793, and the insurrection of the Red Republicans in 

June, 1848, inspired 
two generations with 
a profound dread of 
mob rule. The 
present generation of 
Frenchmen will not 
forget the Commune. 
The soul of the 
government of 
national defense was 
Leon Gambetta, and 
after the new Na- 
tional Assembly 
assumed power he 
appeared as the 
leader of a definite 
Republican party. 
The Assembly con- 
tained a majority of 
monarchists, but no 
one of the three pretenders, Orleanist, Legitimist, 
Bonapartist, could command a majority. In August, 
1 87 1, Thiers was elected president of the republic. 
Originally an Orleanist, he became convinced that the 
republic was the only safe compromise. But his fidelity 
to this belief led to his overthrow in the spring of 1873, 




Gambetta. 
Leon Michel Gambetta, born, 1838. Deputy, 
1870. Republican and opportunist. Pre- 
mier, 1881. Died, 1882. 



France as It Is. 



179 



and Marshal MacMahon, an avowed Royalist, was 
chosen in his place. There was a promising scheme of 
a union between the two 
Royalist wings, which 
would have placed the 
Count de Chambord, the 
heir of Charles X., on the 
throne. But he was a true 
Bourbon, and refused to 
give up the white flag of 
his ancestors even to gain a 
crown. These scruples, 
logical but out of date, made 
a restoration impossible, 
and so the Royalist Assem- 
bly made a temporary 
settlement by electing Mac- 
Mahon president for seven 
years. A further concession 
of the monarchical factions 
of the Assembly in 1875 
definitely organized the 
republic in a series of con- 
stitutional laws. It was 
still the hope of each fac- 
tion that events might 
restore its chief to power. 
But the National Assembly, marshal MacMahon. 

elected in the winter of Bo ™> June 13, 180S. Entered army. 

1825. Became Marshal of France, 

187I for the purpose Of l8 59- Governor-general of Algeria, 

' f f 1864-70. President, 1873-79. Died, 

putting an end to the war, October 17, 1893. 
had clung too long to power. The nation was growing 
uneasy. It seemed necessary that there should be a 
new election. Still, the Conservatives proposed to 



MacMahon 
President. 

May, 1873. 




Nov. 19, 1873. 



180 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The Executive. 



The Senate. 



Constitution of retain all the power possible. It was determined that 
the new legislature should have two houses. And in 
the Senate seventy-five of the three hundred members 
were elected for life by the National Assembly from its 
own number, vacancies to be filled by the Senate itself. 
The president was to be elected by a joint session of 
the two branches of the legislature, to hold office for 
seven years. He was to govern by a cabinet respon- 
sible to the legislature. 

The remaining members of the Senate were chosen by 
indirect suffrage, the electoral college in each depart- 
ment of the republic consisting of the deputies from 
that department, the department council, the district 
councilors, and delegates sent from the municipal 
councils. These senators had the term of office fixed at 
nine years, and one third was to be renewed each three 
years. By an amendment of 1884, no more life mem- 
bers were to be chosen. Each department has a num- 
ber of senators determined by population. 

The lower house is the Chamber of Deputies. The 
five hundred eighty-four members are chosen, one for 
each district in France, including the colonies, by direct 
vote and universal suffrage. The term is four years 
and all are elected at once. Money bills, in imitation 
of English and American practice, may originate only 
in the lower house. 

The legislature may eject a ministry by defeating a 
ministerial measure, or by a vote of "want of confi- 
dence." This is the English method of cabinet gov- 
ernment, and in further imitation of that method the 
president may, but only with the assent of the Senate, 
dissolve the Chamber of Deputies and hold a new 
election. 

The constitution of 1875, it will be seen, relates 



The Chamber 
of Deputies. 



Cabinet 
government. 



France as It Is. 



merely to the organization and powers of the legisla- 
ture and the executive. Other French political institu- 
tions have remained unchanged through all the vicissi- 
tudes since the time of the first empire. 

The most obvious fact is the extreme centralization of Centralization, 
administration. Local self-government in the American 
sense hardly exists in 
France. 

The republic is 
divided into eighty- 
seven departments, | Departments, 
approximately equal 
in size, and named 
from rivers and 
mountains. These 
take the place of the 
historic provinces, 
Normandy, Tou- 
raine, and the like, 
which were all 
abolished in 1792. 
The departments 
correspond roughly 
to the states of the 
American Union. 

Each department 
is divided into dis- 
tricts (arro?idissements), each district into cantons, and 
each canton is a group of communes. 

The commune is the only one of these divisions which The Commune 
is ancient. The others are the artificial product of the 
first republic in the interest of uniformity and equality. 
The 36,121 communes vary in area and in population 
within very wide limits; 17,181 have each less than 




Eugenie. 

Eugenie Marie de Montijo, born at Granada, 
in Spain, 1826. Her father was an officer of 
Napoleon I. Her mother was of a Scotch 
family. Married to Napoleon III., 1853. 
Regent, July, 1870. Fled to England after 

■ the overthrow of theempire, September, 1870. 



Subdivisions of 
the Depart- 
ments. 



182 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



500 people ; 99 have each more than 20,000. Morteau 
has a population of only 12, while the commune of 
Paris has over 2,000,000. Again, Plessix Balisson has 
an area of 20 acres, and Aries has 254,540 acres. 

The administrative head of each department is a 
The Prefect. prefect, corresponding in a general way to the governor 

of one of our states. 
He is not elected 
by the people, how- 
ever, but is ap- 
pointed by the 
head of the State, 
i. e. , at present by 
the president of the 
republic. The pre- 
fect is directly de- 
pendent on the 
minister of the in- 
terior. 

Each department 
has a sort of legis- 
lature, the council 
general, elected by 

M. Grew. . , „ 

Born, August 15, 1807 (?). President of National Universal SUttrage. 
Assembly, 1848-49; of Chamber of Deputies, "PVi^it- n r\ w e- r c orp 
1876 and 1877-78. President, 1879. Reelected, x llcu F uwclil dl c 
1885. Resigned, 1887. Died, September 9, 1891. y er y limited re- 
lating mostly to such matters as schools, public works, 
charities, and the like. Nearly all laws and regulations 
come from Paris. 

The arrondissement, in like manner, has a sub-prefect 
and a district council. Their functions are still more 
restricted. 

The canton is not an administrative unit at all, and is 
little more than an election district for the department 




France as It Is. 



183 



and arrondissement councils. Each canton has one 
representative in each council. 

The commune manages its local affairs by a com- 
munal council, ranging in number from ten to thirty-six, 
chosen by universal suffrage. The council elects the 
mayor. But all acts of mayor and council are subject 
to the absolute veto 
of the prefect of the 
department. In 
communes of over 
40,000, the organi- 
zation of the police 
must be approved 
by the president of 
the republic. In 
Paris the national 
treasury provides 
nearly a third of 
the cost of the 
police. The organi- 
zation of the com- 
mune of Paris is 
exceptional in many 
ways. The police 
system, for instance, 
is under the direct control of the minister of the interior, 
exercised through a special prefect of police. 

The French method of managing the relations of 
Church and State is based on the Concordat between 
Napoleon I. and the pope. There is entire liberty of 
conscience, but freedom of public worship is limited by 
the law which restricts the right of meetings and associ- 
ations. The general principle is that the State will 
recognize and will support any religion which has at 




Sadi-Carnot. 

Born, 1837. Engineer. National Assembly, 1S71. 

President, 1887. Assassinated, June 24, 1894. 



Church and 
State. 



1 84 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Education and 
war. 



least 100,000 adherents. The churches at present 
recognized are the Roman Catholics, who comprise 
more than three fourths of the nation, the Protestants, 
and the Jews. At the time of the first revolution the 
Church lands were seized and sold by the State. The 
Concordat provided that the title to these lands should 
not be disturbed, and in return that the State should 

guarantee the clergy 
their salaries. They 
are, in fact, paid 
from the public funds, 
as are the clergy of 
the other recognized 
churches. The head 
of the State appoints 
the bishops, and they 
appoint the inferior 
clergy, subject to 
the approval of the 
head of the state. 
The cathedrals are 
the property of the 
nation, a rrd the 
parish churches be- 
long to the com- 
munes. 

Since the German 
war the most strenu- 
ous efforts have been 
made to extend 
primary education and to perfect the organization of 
the army and navy. All children between six and 
thirteen years of age are obliged to attend school. In 
the public schools tuition is free. For public defense 




Jules Ferry. 

Born, April 5, 1832. Prime Minister 
and 1883-85. Elected president of the Senate, 
1893. Died, March 17, 1893. 



France as It Is. 



185 



the Prussian method of universal compulsory service 
has been introduced. The breakdown of the army in 
1870 and the resulting disasters stung France to the 
quick. The military organization since then has re- 
ceived the most . 
painstaking atten- 
tion, until now the 
French army will 
probably compare 
fa v or ably at all 
points with that of 
Germany. At the 
same time an 
elaborate system 
of fortifications 
will make it no 
easy task to pene- 
trate to the in- 
terior of France 
again. The en- 
tire available 
trained war force 
is about 2,500,000 
men. 

The definitive 
third republic 
dates from the beginning of 1876. The elections made The Third 
the majority of the Senate monarchists, and a large 
majority of the Chamber of Deputies Republicans. 
The next three years were filled with the political 
antagonisms created by this discordant situation, and 
by the monarchical and ultramontane views of the 
president. In 1877 a ministry was formed in strict 
accord with these views, although the Republicans had 




Casimir-Perier. 
Born, November8, 1847. Elected president, 1S94. 
Resigned, 1895. 



i86 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



June, 1877. 



Dec. 14, 1877. 



Grevy 
President. 

Jan. 30, 1879. 



The Cultur- 
kampf. 



1880. 



a majority of two hundred in the lower house. A 
vigorous policy was adopted of changing administrative 
officers not in sympathy with the administration ; what 
we should call a "clean sweep." Fifty of the eighty- 
seven prefects were transferred or removed, and minor 
officials shared the same fate. The Chamber of Deputies 
was then dissolved, the Senate assenting by a majority of 
twenty. The electoral campaign was fiercely fought, 
Gambetta leading the Republican opposition, and the 
president issuing an electoral address urging the choice 
of the candidates whom he should designate. The 
result was a large majority for the Republicans. The 
president persisted in keeping a Royalist cabinet, but 
as the Chamber refused to vote the supplies, a dead- 
lock was caused, which at last brought the obstinate 
marshal to terms. A Republican cabinet took office, 
and proceeded to undo the work of their predecessors 
so far as practicable. This time there was a "clean 
sweep" of Royalist and Bonapartist officeholders. In 
the beginning of 1879 the Republicans secured a ma- 
jority in the Senate, and before the month was ended 
MacMahon resigned the presidency. Jules Grevy, 
speaker of the house, was elected to succeed him. 
Thiers had died during the canvass. 

Marshal MacMahon might at one time have secured 
himself in power by a cotip a" Hat, but he was an honest 
man, and refused to use those means which so often 
have been the curse of French politics. 

The National Assembly of 1875, and the adminis- 
tration of MacMahon, had been practically dominated 
by ultramontane influences. The Republican adminis- 
tration set out to reverse this policy. Under authority 
of existing laws the Jesuits were expelled from France, 
and public supervision of education vigorously enforced. 



France as It Is. 



187 



' ' The property of religious orders was subjected to tax- 
ation, education made compulsory, and religion prac- 
tically excluded from the schools." 

The election of 1881 returned an overwhelming 
Republican majority to the Chamber of Deputies, and 
Gambetta, who had been the leader of the party from 
the first, became prime minister. He found an active 
opposition, and soon resigned. Since his death the 
Republicans have 
had no one great 
leader. 

However, the 
republic has con- 
tinued, and, on 
the whole, has 
gained strength. 
France has ac- 
quired new colo- 
nies, Tunis in 
1 88 1, Madagas- 
car in 1885, and 
since then more 
territory in Ton- 
quin. The Bon- 
apartists and the 
Royalists have 
no leader whose 
name weighs 
greatly. In 1886 
all princes of 
houses which 
have reigned were expelled from France. Even the 
administrative scandals which led to the resignation of l88 ? 
President GreVy, soon after the beginning of his second 



Muller, 625. 



Death of Gam- 
betta, Dec. 31, 
1882. 




Francois Felix Faure. 
Born, January 30, 1841. Vice-president of the Cham- 
ber of Deputies, 1894. President, 1S95 — . 



1 88 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

term, did not shake it. M. Sadi-Carnot, grandson of 
Carnot under the revolutionary war minister, was chosen to succeed 
GreVy, for the term ending in 1894. At that time 
Carnot was reelected for the full term of seven years. 
A short time after the election, however, the president 
was assassinated by an Italian fanatic. M. Casimir- 
Perier was then (June 27, 1894) chosen to the presi- 
dency, but after a few months he became so disgusted 
with the virulence of faction that he abruptly resigned 
his office. The National Assembly then (January 12, 
1895) elected M. Francois Felix Faure president. 

The greatest blow to French republican institutions 
has been the frightful corruption among public men in 
connection with the Panama Canal fiasco. But even 
this has been weathered. France meanwhile has been 
quietly strengthening her army and navy, and in the 
friendship of Russia since 1891 has apparently a counter- 
poise in the Triple Alliance. 

While Louis Napoleon was emperor he imitated the 
English free trade system. But the republic has re- 
turned to a protective tariff, in common with most of 
the Continent. The third republic has lasted longer 
now than any other form of government which France 
has had since 1789. And continued peace, prosperity, 
and growing national strength may give it permanence. 
War is its greatest danger. A highly successful war 
would be quite sure to arouse so much enthusiasm for 
the victorious general as to make it easy for him to fol- 
low in the footsteps of the Bonapartists, and attain 
supreme power by the overthrow of the republic. On 
the other hand, a disastrous war would bring such odium 
on republican institutions that some sort of monarchical 
restoration would be inevitable. So it would seem 
that peace is the main hope of popular government. 



France as It Is. 189 



Louis Napoleon said, at the opening of his reign, " The 
empire is peace." With much more truth might Pres- 
ident Faure to-day say, " The republic is peace." 

SUMMARY. 

The National Assembly, formed when the Empire col- 
lapsed, governed France until 1875, when a constitution, pro- 
viding for a republic with cabinet government and centralized 
administration, was adopted. 

France supports any religion having at least 100,000 ad- 
herents. 

The Third Republic has lasted longer than any French gov- 
ernment since 17S9, and seems firmly established. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE. 



The Dreibund. 



The Peace 
League. 



German 
Constitution. 



Napoleon III. went to war with Prussia in 1870, in 
order to undo the work of German consolidation which 
1866 had seen wrought, and, by military glory, such as 
he had won in 1859, to insure his dynasty in France. 
The issue of the conflict was the German Empire and 
the French Republic. And to-day. the French desire 
to wipe out the disgrace of defeat is balked by a solid 
alliance of the three central powers — Germany, Austria- 
Hungary, Italy. 

For several years after the Franco-German War Rus- 
sia, Germany, and Austria- Hungary acted in close con- 
cert. But the course of Germany at the Berlin Congress 
of 1878 alienated Russia. Thereafter Bismarck suc- 
ceeded in forming a close league with Austria- Hungary 
and Italy. His aim was to check France, to preserve 
Italy, to limit Russian aggression in the east. 

The soul of the Triple Alliance is the German Empire. 
The other allies, however, sorely need peace, and have 
nothing to gain and much to fear from a general Euro- 
pean war. The league, therefore, is first of all a league 
of peace. 

The German Empire is a federal union of twenty-five 
states which formerly were wholly independent. Four, 
Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, and Wiirtemberg, are king- 
doms. Three, Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, are re- 
publics. The rest are constitutional monarchies, ranking 
as grand duchies, duchies, and principalities. 

190 



The Emperor. 



The Triple Alliance. 191 

The federal legislature has two houses, the Council of 
State (Bundesratk) and the Diet {Reichstag). The The Legis- 
former represents the states, like our Senate. Its fifty- 
eight members, however, are distributed somewhat 
according to population, Prussia having seventeen. 
The councilors are appointed by the respective govern- 
ments, and are merely their ambassadors. 

The Diet represents the people. Its five hundred 
ninety-seven members are elected by universal suffrage 
for a term of five years. 

The executive power is vested in the emperor, the 
imperial title being bestowed on the king of Prussia. 
The emperor can make peace and treaties in general, 
and, with the assent of the Council, can declare war. 
He also has the right, with the assent of the Council, to 
prorogue or dissolve the Diet. His general adminis- 
trative functions are performed through a ministry of 
ten departments, at the head of which is the imperial 
chancellor. Unlike France and England, the German 
ministry is not responsible to the legislature, but is 
dependent only on the crown. 

The constitution can be amended by act of the legis- 
lature, but no amendment is valid if there are fourteen 
adverse votes in the Council. 

It should be added that the South German states 
retain some special privileges which cannot be taken 
from them without their assent. 

German government is highly centralized, and the ad- Paternal 
ministration supervises the individual in a great variety 
of ways which we should regard as decidedly vexatious. 
An acute observer says : "In a military empire every 
man is a soldier, and everything concerning him is 
subjected to military supervision. The State looks after 
his mind, his bowels, and his soul ; it must accredit the 



The Ministry. 



Amendments. 



Government. 



192 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Baring-Gould, 

308. 



The army. 



doctors or trainers for all three. The State so far 
bends to circumstances as to allow men to be Poles, 
Prussians, or Saxons, by blood, and to be Catholics, or 
Protestants, or Jews, by profession, just as it acknowl- 
edges three arms, infantry, cavalry, and artillery. As 
every male infant is an embryo soldier, and every female 
babe a prospective mother of soldiers, they must be 
registered by State functionaries, educated by State 
functionaries, married by State functionaries, and shov- 
eled out of the world by State functionaries. No man 
is a free agent, for every man is a soldier. He must be 
drilled by State corporals on week days, and preached 
to by State chaplains on Sundays. The State takes 
charge of his digestion and his conscience." 

German unity was won by "blood and iron," and it 
must be maintained in the same way. So the State is 
an armed camp. Every man must be a soldier and 
must serve in the ranks for a definite term of years. 
And to the same end the government keeps rigid disci- 
pline even in civil life. There can be no public meeting 
without the consent and supervision of the police. And 
the press is subject to close censorship. 

On the other hand, it should be said that Prussian 
administration is proverbially honest, frugal, and efficient.. 
Education is marvelously effective, and the highest pro- 
fessional skill is secured for public and private service. 

The German army has, since 1870, been the standard 
of the military profession for the world. The universal 
service makes a nation of trained soldiers, and the most 
profound scientific knowledge is incessantly at work to 
maintain and improve the efficiency of the tremendous 
fighting machine. The peace footing of the active 
army is about a half million men, while three times that 
number could be put under arms at once in case of war. 



The Triple Alliance. 



193 



The annual cost falls but little short of $100,000,000. 

One reason for the giant strides which Germany has Education, 
taken in the present century is the pains which have 
been devoted to education. Primary schooling is com- 
pulsory, and teachers are trained as carefully as physi- 
cians or civil engineers. The secondary schools and 
universities are numerous and thorough. Indeed, the 
inspiration which the higher education in America has 
received of late years is largely due to the contact of 
American students with German university methods. 

As is the case in France, the relation of Church and church and 
State is very close. The American plan of entire sepa- 




Heidklberg. 



ration of the two does not exist anywhere in Europe. 
The methods vary in the different German states, but 
as a general fact it may be said that the Church is 
supervised and its clergy are paid by the State. North 
Germany is largely Protestant, and South Germany as 
largely Roman Catholic. The Jesuits, together with 
convents and religious orders in general, are forbidden. 
The religious status of the different German lands is 



i 9 4 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



1618-48. 



Baring-Gould, 
335-6- 



Whitman, 72. 



The Cultur- 
kampf. 



practically that which was fixed by the Thirty Years' 
War. That horrible convulsion, which destroyed two 
thirds of the German population, ended in a compro- 
mise which recognized the principle that the religion of 
the prince should prevail in his state — cuj'us regio, ejus 
religio. That fixed the religion allowed by law so that 
there has been little change to this day. A religious 
map of Germany now would be a fairly good political 
map for 1648. 

To be sure, there has occasionally been some incon- 
venience in applying the principle. Whenever it has 
happened that a change of dynasty has implied a change 
of religion in the prince, the State has had to follow. 
The Rhenish Palatinate, for instance, changed religions 
no less than ten times in a century. In other cases it 
was the prince who found it easier to alter his princi- 
ples. "Count Schaffgotsch wrote to Frederick the Great 
apologizing for having changed his religion. He ex- 
plained that the acquisition of the estate of Schlacken- 
werth was conditioned on his becoming a Catholic. 
Frederick dryly replied : ' I have taken cognizance of 
your lordship's action, to which I have no objection. 
Many roads lead to heaven. Your lordship has struck 
out on the road by Schlackenvverth. Bon voyage. ' ' 

The beginning of the French war of 1870 coincided 
with the proclamation of the dogma of infallibility of 
the pope. The Jesuits in Germany opposed the forma- 
tion of the empire, dreading the predominance of a great 
Protestant power like Prussia. And the dogma of in- 
fallibility seemed to threaten the allegiance of German 
Catholics to the temporal power. Accordingly the 
Prussian State interfered to protect ecclesiastics from 
the penalties inflicted by their bishops for declining to 
accept the new dogma, and a series of measures followed, 



The Triple Alliance. 



195 



aimed at the influence of the pope in Prussian and 

German affairs. In 1872 the Jesuits were expelled from The May Laws, 

the empire, and in May, 1873, Prussia enacted laws 

calculated to secure the State against control by the 

Roman Catholic Church. This legislation was bitterly 

opposed by the ultramontanes, and in 1875 the pope 

justified the Protestant view of the daneer from the Papaiencycii- 

J ° cal, Feb., 1875. 




The Houses ok Parliament, Berlin. 

dogma of infallibility by declaring invalid the German 
Church laws and forbidding Catholics to obey them. 
The conflict between the new German ideas and the pope 
raged furiously for several years. As bishoprics and 
other Church places fell vacant Prussia would not allow 
them to be filled, until by 1880 eight of the twelve Prus- 
sian sees and more than a thousand parishes had no 
incumbents. 

But Bismarck had other policies which he held even 
more important than the supremacy of the State over 
a foreign Church. In 1879 he had formulated a new 
financial policy which included a protective tariff, and 



196 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

this could be carried only with the help of the ultra- 
montane votes in the Diet. So a compromise was 
effected, by the terms of which the Church laws were 
softened in their effect. The vigorous Parliamentary 
opposition of the Roman Catholics, led by so acute a 
politician as Windhorst, succeeded in baffling even the 
iron chancellor. 

Meanwhile another religious quarrel had broken out, 
The anti-Jewish this time complicated with race and economic motives. 

movement. r 

The Jews had been granted civil rights by the Prussian 
constitution of 1850, and the empire, in 1871, had guar- 
anteed them full civil and political equality. These 
rights they supplemented by their characteristic industry 
and ability until their position in Germany was one of 
peculiar strength. The press has fallen largely into their 
hands, and the same is true of banking capital. Many 
Germans prominent in literature, art, and politics have 
been Jews — Lassalle, Lasker, Mendelssohn, Heine, 
Auerbach, Rubinstein. Envy and fear combined to 
give life to an anti-Jewish party which for several years, 
1879-81, carried on an active crusade against the hated 
race. The results were small politically, though in 
social matters the Jews were very generally ostracized. 
They do not seem to have suffered materially by this 
revival of medievalism. 

Another enemy quite as formidable as the ultramon- 
tanes, Bismarck found in the socialists. So long as the 

Socialism. ... . 

communistic doctrines of Lassalle were merely academic, 
they seemed rather attractive than dangerous to inquir- 
ing minds. But when a financial crisis came to Germany 
these socialistic theories assumed a threatening form. 
The first effect of the French war was an inflation of 
business in every direction, and this was made greater 
by the expenditure of the French indemnity. But the 



The Triple Alliance. 



197 



lies in the fort- 
ress of Spandau 
as a war fund. 



1878. 



destruction of life and property which war entails must, 

in the end, react on economic conditions, and the period Qfthisinden 

1 nity the sum 

of inflation was naturally followed by a period of depres- of 120,000,000 

■> J r I marks in gold 

sion. The financial crisis brought on much suffering, 
and at this time socialistic doctrines flourished. It soon 
appeared that these doctrines, if carried out, would re- 
sult in the subversion of order in society, and when the 
logical result of the teachings of socialistic extremists 
appeared in attempts to assassinate the emperor, the 
government took alarm. Repressive measures were 
enacted at the demand of Bismarck, restricting the right 
of printing and circulating incendiary papers or books, 
and the right of making incendiary speeches. Such 
measures were enacted for a short period, and were re- 
newed from time to time for intervals of two or three 
years. The last repressive laws expired in 1890. 

We Americans are very jealous of the freedom of 
speech and of the press. But it is to be remembered 
that in Chicago men were hanged for speeches and 
writings which tended to induce murder. The princi- 
ple is the same which guided Bismarck. 

After the war with France came to an end, two heavy 
tasks confronted the German imperial government. One 
was to consolidate the new empire. The other was to 
insure it against external violence. This second was a 
grave matter, as the empire had been created by "blood 
and iron," and two great nations, Austria and France, 
had been overthrown and humiliated so that Germany 
might be united. If the animosities engendered by de- 
feat should lead to hostile combinations, not only would 
the new empire be in danger, but no one could tell what 
far-reaching European complications would result. 

It was Bismarck's first object, then, to divide the 
enemies of Germany and so far as possible to disarm 



Tasks of the 
new empire. 



198 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The three 
emperors. 



The Triple 
Alliance. 



enmity. He was successful in the first instance with 
Austria. The overwhelming defeat of France prevented 
both Austria and Italy from taking the field against 
Germany in 1870, and at the same time so strengthened 
the new empire that it was plainly apparent that it would 
be hopeless for Austria to attempt a reaction. Under 
these circumstances it was possible to restore good re- 
lations between the two countries, and in 1872 Bismarck 
succeeding in effecting an understanding with Russia as 
well, so that the three empires were virtually in alliance. 
The Italian kingdom was strongly predisposed to friend- 
ship with Germany. The point of difficulty in the 
peninsula was the status of the pope, and Germany by 
its aggressive course toward the papal claims had, by 
the mere logic of facts, put itself on the side of Victor 
Emmanuel against the pope's demand for the restora- 
tion of the temporal power. Thus France had no 
friend in any movement of attack on Germany. 

The alliance of the great central powers and Russia 
was broken by the events of the Berlin Congress of 
1878. At that memorable gathering the fruits of 
Russian victory over Turkey were largely divided 
among other powers, Austria especially, succeeding 
both in restricting the extension of Russian influence 
and in adding to her own territory. Russia in conse- 
quence of this was detached from the central powers. 
And in 1879 Germany effected a close alliance with 
Austria, which two years later received the adhesion of 
Italy. The course of France in seizing Tunis, together 
with other causes, had made a breach between France 
and Italy, so that it was natural for that kingdom to 
attach itself to the great powers north of it. 

The Triple Alliance is a solid league in behalf of 
peace. None of the three powers is aggressive. All 



77/<? Triple Alliance. 199 

need peace. And together they are strong enough to 
insure Europe against the consequences of a French 
war of revenge. It is the creation of Bismarck's 
shrewd policy. He is thus the preserver, as well as the 
creator, of German nationality. 

But it is not republics alone which are ungrateful. 
Bismarck has always been a thorough absolutist, with 
no manner of sympathy for any form of democracy. 
When the old Emperor William died, in 1888, there 
would have been great likelihood of an extension of 
constitutional liberty had the new Emperor Frederick 
been in good health. But he was stricken with mortal 
disease, and in a very few months followed his father to 
the tomb. Frederick was a man of liberal views. But 
his son and successor, William II. , was a very devout 
believer in divine right, and as thorough an absolutist 
as Bismarck himself. For that very reason he could 
brook no will in the government but his own, and in 
1890 the great chancellor was dismissed from office. 
He retired to private life, and since then the emperor Retirement of 

. . f . . . .... Bismarck. 

has gone on in a masterful way without a bridle. 

The Triple Alliance has been maintained, the German 
military system extended and strengthened, and a course 
of legislation begun looking toward the alleviation of 
the lot of the manual laborers. William seems to 
regard himself as a sort of universal Providence for his 
empire. He gave some alarm at his accession by his 
rather boastful ways and by his apparent restlessness of 
temperament. But the peace of Europe has not yet 
been broken. 

France and Russia, isolated at the extremities of France and 
Europe, of late years have apparently drawn together. 
Their naval squadrons have exchanged visits with much 
parade and many tokens of popular enthusiasm. The 



Russia. 



200 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

tsar has visited Paris and the French president has 
visited Russia (1897). On this last occasion Europe 
was electrified by a speech of the tsar in which he 
referred to the two "allied" nations. How far this 
alliance extends is not known outside the two govern- 
ments. But it is pretty clear that for all practical 
purposes the Triple Alliance is confronted by a dual 
alliance. Neither can safely attack the other. 

SUMMARY. 

The German Empire is a federal union of twenty-five states 
under the presidency of Prussia. 

The German government is paternal : every man is under 
military discipline. German unity was won by "blood and 
iron " and must be maintained in the same way. 

The Church is supervised and its clergy paid by the State. 

Ultramontanism, anti-Semitism, and socialism have compli- 
cated German politics. 

To protect Germany against a French war of revenge, 
Bismarck formed the Triple Alliance. 

The accession of the restless William II., the retirement of 
Bismarck, and the Franco-Russian Alliance are the more 
recent factors in German politics. 



PART IV.-THE BRITISH EMPIRE-RECON- 
STRUCTION WITHOUT REVOLUTION. 

PRELIMINARY. 

The development of the British people during the Growthofthe 
nineteenth century has been quite as marked as that of P e °P le - 
continental nations. But the vital difference is that con- 
tinental Europe has been reconstructed by war, while 
English society has been able to effect its transformation 
without bloodshed, and by the comparatively orderly 
processes of constitutional action. This fact has been 
due to the high degree of liberty enjoyed by the Eng- 
lish people, and to the popular institutions which have 
been created through past centuries. The British mon- 
archy has long been limited by constitutional forms, the 
last attempt of the crown at despotic rule having been 
foiled by the revolution of 1688. But while the English 
king in 18 15 was by no means absolute, on the other 
hand the English Parliament was far from being a demo- 
cratic body. It had come to be the representative of that 
wealthy landed oligarchy which formed the ruling class. 
This aristocratic government had little sympathy with 
the troubles or the ambitions of the mass of the nation. 
And the great feature of English political evolution has 
been the process by which power has been transferred 
from the classes to the masses. England is now gov- 
erned by a democratic Parliament. 

The relation of Ireland to the British government has 

. Ireland, 

been a source of irritation ever since that unlucky island 



202 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

was conquered. It is true that Ireland has long been 
an integral part of the United Kingdom, duly repre- 
sented in the British Parliament, and ranking as a distinct 
kingdom rather than as a dependency of the empire. 
Still the results of medieval conquest and sixteenth 
century insurrections and seventeenth century civil war 
and religious animosities have been perpetuated to our 
own time. It was not till the end of the eighteenth 
century that a Roman Catholic in Ireland was allowed 
to hold legal title to land or to educate his children in 
his own faith or to attend a Catholic church. And at 
the time when English bayonets were aiding to restore a 
Roman Catholic Bourbon to the throne of France, no 
Roman Catholic was allowed to sit in the British Parlia- 
ment, or to hold civil or military office under the British 
government. All the people of Ireland were taxed to 
support the established English Episcopal Church which 
numbered among its adherents a small minority. The 
soil of Ireland was owned by a few landlords, largely 
non-residents, and the peasantry, improvident and poor, 
were but one degree above the American negro slaves in 
point of material comfort and social influence. Ireland 
has been a conquered land, ruled by aliens in blood, in 
religion, and in political ideas. And a second great 
feature of the century has been the slow but steady prog- 
ress of Irish enfranchisement. 
Economic The fundamental interests of Great Britain are manu- 

eve opmen . f ac t urm g anc \ commercial. In this the island realm is a 
type of modern material civilization. There has been in 
our age an enormous creation of wealth. Industrial life 
has centered in the production of portable commodities. 
Steam and electricity have multiplied many fold the 
efficiency of individual energy. Hence two things have 
resulted — vast accumulations of wealth in the hands of 



Preliminary . 



203 



a few, and the greatly increased importance of the indi- 
vidual artisan. Medieval monarchs were poor in com- 
parison with many of our modern captains of industry. 
The feudal serf counted for little more than the swine or 
the ox. But the organized industrial masses are a 
forceful element in the social life of our democratic day. 
And the nineteenth century has seen in Great Britain 
some of the greatest aggregations of private riches and 
some of the most sharply accentuated forms of prole- 
tarian misery and class strife. 




Trinity College, Cambridge. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE BRITISH PEOPLE IN EIGHTEEN HUNDRED FIFTEEN. 



National debt. 



S. Walpole, 
I., 28. 



Government. 



During the quarter century in which the British 
Empire was waging war on the French Revolution, the 
entire energies of England were devoted to the inter- 
national strife. Public debt rolled up to a fabulous 
amount. In 1792 England owed $1,198,250,000. In 
1815 the national debt was $4,305,000,000. This vast 
increase was spent in ships and cannon and gunpowder 
— in other words, it was burned up or sunk in the sea. 
But while the spending was going on, many forms of 
industry were powerfully stimulated. And the war shut 
off British commerce from a good share of the Conti- 
nent, but at the same time shut off continental competi- 
tion with the English ocean traffic. The British farmer 
had the monopoly of the home market, and the British 
manufacturer had a monopoly of the market in America 
and the east. So trade and agriculture and manufactur- 
ing industry grew and thrived, while questions of political 
reform were set aside in the press and rush of the war. 
Indeed, the course into which England was drawn gave 
a shape to politics which lasted a full generation. The 
excesses of the French revolutionists caused in England 
a revulsion of popular feeling against all manner of 
liberalism. And as a result the Tory party managed 
the government until 1832. 

The machinery of government through all this time 
and for many years before was thoroughly antiquated. 
It had been constructed gradually through many 



The House of 



77/i? British People in 1815. 205 

centuries, and was adapted to the needs of the nation 
from time to time by necessary modifications. But with 
the sole exception of the ministry, there had been no 
material improvement or readaptation of the structure 
of government since the abortive reforms of Cromwell. 

During - the French wars the nation was undoubtedly 
in sympathy with the general policy of the government. 
But that did not alter the fact that the House of Com- 
mons did not by any means represent the people. The 
distribution of the members and the mode of choosing 
them were such as to put a considerable majority of 
them in the hands of a small class of rich men. 

At that time the total membership of the House was 
six hundred fifty-eight. Five hundred thirteen were Commons, 
from England, forty-five from Scotland, and one hundred 
from Ireland. As a rule, two members were elected by 
each county in the United Kingdom (one by each Welsh 
county), and two by each city or borough. The county 
members were only a small minority. 

A Parliamentary borough was supposed originally to 
be a town of considerable population. The right to 
decide that a given place should be a borough and 
should be represented in Parliament had been in the 
hands of the crown. From time to time new boroughs 
had been created. But from the time of Charles II. 
there had been no such creations, and so the distribu- 
tion of members was stereotyped for nearly two centu- 
ries. And during those centuries the population of 
Great Britain was enormously increased and was rear- 
ranged in such a way that the Parliamentary representa- 
tion, already ill adjusted in 1660, by 1815 was merely 
grotesque. In the former year there were perhaps five 
million people in England and Wales. In the latter 

1 1 r 1 •«■ r* 1 , S. Walpole, 

year there were upwards of eleven million. Scotland i-, 25. 



2o6 



Eicrope in the Nineteenth Century. 



Change in dis- 
tribution of pop- 
ulation. 




and Ireland had probably not increased in the same 
ratio, but each had added about twenty-five per cent 
during the French wars. But the changes in the centers 
of population were still more remarkable. In the seven- 
teenth century the south of England was the most 
densely populated part of the island. That was the rich 
agricultural section, and agriculture and foreign trade 
were then the staple industries. But in the last years of 
the eighteenth century came the great inventions which 
produced an industrial revolution. Steam was har- 
nessed to labor, and a series of machines for the manu- 
facture of textile fabrics transferred the cotton and 
woolen industries from the artisan's cottage to the 
factory. At the same time productive power 
was multiplied many fold. And naturally 
manufactures centered where coal and iron 
were obtained. So great cities grew up in 
the north — Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds 
— and they were not Parliamentary boroughs. 
In 1 83 1, the year before the Reform Bill was 
passed, the ten southern counties of England 
and Wales, with a population of 3,260,000, 
had 235 members of Parliament; the six 
northern counties had 3,594,000 people and 
66 members. Cornwall had one member to 
each 7,500 people. Lancashire had one to 
each 100,000. 

On the other hand, many of the old Par- 
liamentary boroughs had dwindled until they 
were nearly or quite depopulated. In such 
case they often were merely part of the estate 
of some wealthy man, and the few voters were 
his tenants. Of course they simply regis- 
tered his will. These were the ' ' pocket 



The British People in 1815. 207 

borouehs." "Gatton was a park; Old Sarum, a mound; Pocket 

. . boroughs. 

Corfe Castle, a ruin; the remains of what once was 
Dunwich were under the waves of the North Sea. But Walpole The 
the great mass of boroughs were a little more populous t ^e C L° e r ^ a f nd 
than these places, and had a dozen, fifty, or even a ture.p. 56. 
hundred, dependent electors." 

Meanwhile Birmingham with 100,000 people, Leeds 
and Sheffield each with 50,000, Leith, Paisley, and 
Stockport with 20,000, and many more, had no repre- 
sentation. 

The ' ' pocket boroughs ' ' were often held by their 
proprietors as so much capital, being sold regularly at 
each election. Through most of the reign of George 
III. the regular market price of a borough returning 
two members was ^10,000, whenever parties were at all 
evenly balanced. 

Manv of the boroueh owners did not sell their seats 

, , 1 , , , t • 1- • 1 S. Walpole, The 

for money, but held them to advance their own political Electorate and 
interests. ' ' A man who owned a borough could usually p. 55. 
command a peerage or an embassy for himself, a pension 
for his wife, or an appointment for his son, by placing 
one of the seats at the disposal of the ministry." About 
two thirds of the seats in this way were controlled by 
some two or three hundred patrons. "The Duke of 
Norfolk was represented by eleven members; Lord 
Lonsdale by nine; Lord Darlington by seven; the Duke 
of Rutland, the Marquis of Buckingham, and Lord 
Carrington, each by six." 

Other of these nominal boroughs were not controlled Rotten 
by any one individual. These were usually more open 
to gross bribery. The borough of Sudbury publicly ad- 
vertised itself for sale to the highest bidder. In 1768, May, 1., 271. 
the contest at Northampton cost the candidates about 
^30,000 a side. In 1771 the systematic bribery which 



May, I., 267. 



208 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The county 
franchise. 



The borough 
franchise. 



Taswell- 

Langmead, 

P-54- 



Method of 
voting. 



had long prevailed at Shoreham was exposed. A 
corrupt association, comprising a majority of the electors, 
and calling itself ' ' The Christian Club, ' ' had been in 
the habit of selling the seats to the highest bidder, and 
dividing the spoil among the members. 

This absurd and pernicious distribution of seats was 
made worse by the limitation of the franchise. In the 
English counties no one could vote but landowners 
whose property was worth at least forty shillings a year. 
In Scotland only landowners worth ^400 a year had the 
franchise. This, of course, cut off nearly everybody. 
In 1823, out of a Scotch population of nearly 2,000,000 
there were less than three thousand county electors. 
County Cromarty had only nine. In 1831 the county 
of Bute had only twenty-one electors, and of these but 
one was a resident. He took the chair, moved and 
seconded his own nomination, put the motion, and 
elected himself unanimously as the county member. 

In the boroughs the franchise was often complicated 
almost beyond description. In many of them it was in 
the hands of a close corporation of self-perpetuating 
officials. Sometimes the right was restricted to those 
paying certain taxes; e. g., in St. Michael, it belonged 
to all inhabitants (seven in number) paying scot and lot. 
At Weymouth, in 1826, the chief right to voting was in 
the title to any portion of certain ancient rents, and 
several voted as entitled to the undivided twentieth part 
of a sixpence. 

The method of voting was viva voce, and the polls 
might be kept open for fifteen days. Thus intimidation 
and bribery had full sway. And the scenes at elections 
were often disgraceful beyond anything which even 
Tammany Hall can rival. 

As a result of all this, it is apparent that in 181 5 the 



The British People in 1815. 209 

House of Commons represented only the landed aris- 
tocracy. The great majority of the nation had no voice 
in Parliament. 

The immediate economic effect of the peace was dis- 
astrous to England. Government expenditure at once 
fell off one half. General retrenchment cut off trade. 
Prices suddenly dropped, the demand for labor was 
greatly lessened, and wages were reduced. Thousands 
of laborers were thrown out of employment altogether. 
Business was disordered and failures multiplied. To Spencer Wai- 

. pole, I., 417. 

add to the universal distress, the year 18 16 witnessed a 
general failure of the crops. Floods and frosts did 
their work, and everywhere poverty and hunger ruled. 
In one parish in Dorsetshire, four hundred nineteen 
out of five hundred seventy-five inhabitants were 
paupers. The people were driven to desperation, and 
riots and incendiary fires began to be common. 

With this general suffering, social and political dis- 
content began to stir. The radical doctrines which 
overturned France in 1792 were now seething among 
the English proletariat, and the ruling aristocracy were 
frightened. In 1817, the privilege of habeas corpzis was 
suspended and stringent measures were enacted to pre- 
vent seditious meetings and other dangerous actions. 

England had aided to overthrow the revolution in 
France and to restore the old regime. And now Eng- 
land itself was honeycombed with revolution. 

SUMMARY. 

Revolutionary excesses in France led to a reaction in 
England which kept the Tories in power until 1832. 

Industrial changes so altered the distribution of population 
that the mass of the people were not represented in Parlia- 
ment. Rotten boroughs and pocket boroughs predominated. 

Economic distress produced social and political discontent. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



THE BEGINNING OF REFORM. 



1 Reform. 



Early attempts 
at reform. 



1654. 



"Reform" in England in the present century has 
meant mostly an improvement in governmental ma- 
chinery. The aim has been to make government more 
nearly representative of the people at large, rather than 
of classes, and at the same time to make it capable of 
responding more readily to the popular wishes. This 
is just what was done on the Continent after 1830. But 
continental reforms were effected by war. In England 
the process has been constitutional action. The trans- 
formation from an oligarchy to a democracy has been 
bloodless. But it has been made. The England of our 
time is quite as different from the England of 18 15 as is 
the French Republic from the restored Bourbon mon- 
archy. 

As early as the middle of the seventeenth century it 
was realized that the House of Commons was not a 
representative body, and Cromwell made a radical re- 
vision of the Parliamentary distribution. But the col- 
lapse of the Commonwealth discredited all its measures, 
and the restoration went back to the old system. For 
more than a century thereafter the question was at rest. 
In the latter part of the eighteenth century both Chat- 
ham and his great son, William Pitt, tried to reform 
Parliament. They did not succeed at the time, and the 
French Revolution drove all ideas of reform out of 
English heads. While the nation was fighting Napoleon, 
the war took the energy disposable. But after 1 8 1 6 a 



The Beginning of Reform. 



211 



bill was annually introduced for the reform. It was 
steadily opposed by the vested interests which controlled 
the lower house. The two or three hundred rich men 
who owned the majority of that body did not propose 
to give up their 
property. 

Poor crazy George 
III. died in 1820, 
and for the next 
ten years the crown 
was worn by George 
IV., "the first gen- 
tleman in Europe." 
More accurately, he 
was the first dandy 
and the first scamp. 
But his head was as 
wooden to all reform 
ideas as had been his 
father's, and it was 
with great difficulty 
that he was driven, 
in 1829, to assent to 
the measure for al- 
lowing Roman Cath- 
olics to sit in Parlia- 
ment. George died 
in 1830, and his 
brother, a bluff and rather honest sailor, succeeded as 
William IV. 

That was the year in which the July revolution over- 
turned the Bourbon monarchy in France, and even 
England felt the impulse of reaction against the prin- 
ciples of 1815. With the death of the king a new 




George IV. 
1820-1830. 



Wellington. 
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. Born in 
Ireland, 1769. Entered the army as ensign, 
1787. Served in India, 1797-1805. Chief Secre- 
tary for Ireland, 1807. Commander-in-chief in 
Portugal and Spain, 1S09. Waterloo, 1S15. 
Prime Minister, 1828. Died, 1852. 



Catholic Eman- 
cipation, 1829. 



William IV. 

1830-7. 



212 



Etirope in the Nineteenth Century. 



Spencer Wal- 
pole, The Elec- 
torate ana the 
Legislature, 
p. 60. 



A Whig minis- 
try, Nov., 1830. 



The first 
reform bill. 



The second 
reform bill. 



Between July 12 
and Julv 27, Sir 
Robert Peel 
spoke against 
the bill 48 times, 
W. Croker 57 
times, and Sir 
C. Wetherell 
58 times. 



Parliament had to be elected, and when the returns 
came in it was found that the Tories had lost fifty votes. 

Wellington, however, was still prime minister, and his 
face was set as a flint against any change. Indeed, in 
the debate on the answer to the speech from the throne, 
the premier ' ' declared that he would consent to no re- 
form; that he thought the representative system, just as 
it stood, the masterpiece of human wisdom; that if he 
had to make it anew, he would make it just as it was, 
with all its represented ruins and all its unrepresented 
cities." 

Being defeated on an unimportant motion by a small 
majority, the Tory ministry took prompt advantage of 
the opportunity by resigning, and Earl Grey, the vet- 
eran Whig reformer, was summoned to form a ministry. 
He accepted office on the express condition of attempt- 
ing a reform of Parliament. 

Accordingly in March, 1831, Lord John Russell in- 
troduced in the House of Commons the first reform bill. 
It was debated for seven nights, and on the second read- 
ing was carried by a vote of three hundred two to three 
hundred one. But presently government was defeated 
on an amendment by a majority of eight votes, and in 
April a dissolution followed. 

The reform party triumphed at the polls, the House 
which met in June having a Whig majority of one hun- 
dred thirty-six. This was a direct mandate of the peo- 
ple for reform. The second bill was introduced on the 
4th of July, and was met by a policy of obstruction. 
After nearly three months of delay and debate, it passed 
the Commons, and was promptly thrown out by the 
House of Lords, the vote being one hundred ninety-nine 
to one hundred fifty-eight. The lower house in reply 
simply passed a vote of confidence in ministers. 



77z<? Beginning of Reform. 213 

It seemed now as if reform was permanently blocked. 
The borough mongers, securely entrenched in the 
hereditary house, were determined to balk the popular 
will. And the people were thoroughly exasperated. 
Riots broke out here and there. It looked for a time as 
if revolution was the only remedy. And the nation was 
determined to reform the government. 

But a way was found without violence. The third bill The third re _ 

was introduced in December, 1831, and passed the formblU - 

Commons in the following March. The ministry had a 

constitutional means of coercing the upper house, and 

this they prepared to use. It was announced that the 

crown was ready to create enough Liberal peers to 

swamp the Tory majority. Once convinced that this 

would be done, the Lords yielded to the inevitable. 

Enough stayed away to insure the passage of the bill. Passesthe 

The vote in the House of Lords was one hundred six to Lords >J un e, 

1832. 

twenty-two. And so the Reform Bill of 1832 became a 
law. 

The act was not revolutionary. It merely sought The Act. 
to cut off the more flagrant abuses. Fifty-six Eng- 
lish boroughs, returning one hundred eleven mem- 
bers, were disfranchised outright. Thirty-two other 
boroughs lost each one member. Thus there was a 
total loss of one hundred forty-three. This was dis- 
tributed by giving twenty-two towns and cities two 
members each, and nineteen one each. The number of 
county members was increased from ninety-four to one 
hundred fifty-nine. That made a net loss in England of 
eighteen seats, which was divided among Wales, Ire- 
land, and Scotland. 

The suffrage was materially extended. In the counties 
there were added to the forty shilling freeholders several 
classes of landholders, both owners and leaseholders. 



214 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Reconstruction 
of Parties. 



6. Walpole, 
Historv of Eng- 
knd, I'll., 135. 



In the boroughs, the old franchises were nearly all swept 
away, and every man owning or renting a house worth 
^ioa year was given a vote. 

This reform, it will be seen, was only partial. Many 
boroughs were left which should not have been repre- 
sented. And the qualification for suffrage was altogether 
too high. Elections were still conducted viva voce, so 
that there was yet ample room for intimidation and 
bribery. 

On the whole, the result of the Reform Act of 1832 
was, that political power was transferred from the upper 
to the middle classes. 

In this connection it may be well to quote a remark of 
Tocqueville. He says that government of the middle 
classes appears to be the most economical, though per- 
haps not the most enlightened, and certainly not the 
most generous of free governments. 

The first Parliament chosen under the Reform Act met 
in January, 1833. With it dates a reconstruction of Eng- 
lish political parties. The ideas and methods of Tories and 
Whigs alike had become obsolete. There was no longer 
question that reforms were to be brought about. The Rad- 
icals desired to use the new Parliamentary machinery to 
attain certain ends. " In their judgment Church Estab- 
lishments, Church Rates, Tithes, Offices, Pensions, Poor 
Laws, Close Corporations, Slavery, Corn Laws, Game 
Laws, were so many ninepins which it was their urgent 
duty to knock down. A new Reform Bill, the Ballot, 
Popular Municipalities, and Free Labor, were a few of 
the devices which they desired to set up." But there 
were decided differences of opinion as to the relative 
urgency of various measures proposed, and as to the 
haste with which reform should be effected. The most 
of the Tories and some of the old Whigs were for 



The Beginning of Reform. 215 

deliberation. Peel declared that ' ' he was for reforming Waipole, His- 

, „ . , c 1^1 tory of England, 

every institution that really required reform, but he was III., 134. 
for doing it gradually, dispassionately, and deliberately, 
in order that the reform might be lasting. ' ' 

Those who favored this policy took the new name of 
Conservatives, while the reformers of all shades now and Liberals, 
called themselves Liberals. In the new Parliament there 
were one hundred seventy-two of the former and four 
hundred eighty-six of the latter. One of the Con- 
servative members who took his seat for the first time 
was William E. Gladstone. 

The reforms which seemed to the Radicals so pressing 
were not all realized by the first Liberal Parliament. 
But some things were accomplished. 

When the Reform Bill was passed, African slavery yet 

. 1 • tm 1 • • Abolition of 

prevailed in many of the English colonies. The decision slavery, 1834. 
of Lord Mansfield, in 1772, had determined that the 
soil of England could hold no slave. And the efforts of 
Wilberforce and his colleagues sufficed, in 1807, to 
enact a law forbidding the slave trade after the beginning 
of the following year — the same year which witnessed 
the end of the foreign slave trade in the United States l8 ° 8 - 
of America. But repeated efforts to free the three 
quarters of a million of slaves in the British colonies 
had failed. The Liberal government by 1833, how- 
ever, succeeded in carrying an act abolishing slavery in 
all the British possessions, to date from August 1, 1834. 
The planters were paid the value of their slaves, and a 
seven years' period of apprenticeship was allowed in 
order to make the transition to the system of free labor. 
The system of caring for the poor did honor to the 
heart rather than to the head of British legislators and 

. The Poor Law, 

administrators. It was most cunningly designed to 1834. 
offer a premium on indolence and vice and to discourage 



216 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



independent labor. The public bounty was carelessly* 
and lavishly distributed, and the effect had been to 
pauperize the great mass of manual laborers, to expose 
to pauper competition those who preferred independence, 
and to burden the treasury with an annual charge of 
^7,000,000. In 1834 the Liberals carried an act re- 
forming the whole system. A central poor law board 
was constituted for general supervision. The extrava- 
gant and pernicious method of "outdoor relief" was 
abolished, save in cases of sickness. Similar revisions 
made it no longer easy and profitable to be a pauper. 
The public purse was saved ^3,000,000 a year. 

There was nothing- more pitiable in the England of the 

The Factory . , , r ... _ , ° . . , 

Act. great reform year than the condition 01 children in the 

factories. The great industrial revolution which followed 
the introduction of machines had made it possible for 
many processes to be done quite as well by children as 
by grown people, and of course at a fraction of the cost. 
So inexorable economic forces swept little ones by thou- 
sands into the factories. Children of five, six, and seven 
years toiled twelve or thirteen hours a day. Thus, in 
the very time of greatest growth they were stunted in 
body and soiled in mind. Some efforts had been made 
at improvement. ' ' Twenty-five years of legislation had 
at last resulted in decreeing that the labor of a little 
child of nine who had the comparatively good fortune to 



* " The poor man declined to support his father in his old age or his child in 
its infancy. That office was the duty of the parish. The mother refused to 
nurse her daughter; the daughter objected to nurse her mother in illness 
unless her services were paid by the parish. A working man in Cambridge- 
shire, whose wife was in prison for theft, complained that he had no one to 
tend his house and children; the magistrates admitted the claim, and ordered 
him us. a week from the parish. In every other class of life a prudent man 
avoided marriage till he could afford it. The poor man was bribed to marry- 
by the parish. Unhappily the parish bribe encouraged him to select the most 
depraved of the village beauties. A girl usually received 2s. a week for each 
illegitimate child, either from the reputed father or from the parish. A girl 
with three or four illegitimate children had, therefore, a small fortune, and was 
eagerly sought after."— Walpole, History of England, III., 234. 



The Beginning of Reform. 217 

be employed in a cotton factory should not exceed sixty- 
nine hours in one week. ' ' The Factory Act passed by 
the Liberal Parliament, in 1833, provided that children 
under thirteen years of age should not labor more than 
eight hours a day, and young persons between thirteen 
and eighteen, not more than sixty-nine hours a week. 

These and other reforms were due to the Liberal 
movement. But the new party was too fast for the 
Conservative and too slow for the Radical. And so its 
hold on power was loosened, and a Conservative min- 
istry displaced it. Since then the two parties have 
alternated in the ministry, the Liberals, on the whole, 
averaging about three years to the Conservatives' one. 

In 1837 the king died, and was succeeded by his 
niece, Victoria, a girl of seventeen. She was married Queen victoria, 
two years later to a German prince, Albert of Saxe- 
Coburg-Gotha. The womanly virtues of Queen Vic- 
toria have given the throne a luster through her long 
reign which it had lacked since the days of William of 
Orange. And the Prince Consort was always an es- 
timable gentleman and a prudent counselor. 

The reform of 1832, as has been said, put power in 
the hands of the middle classes. The artisans, the so- The Chartists, 
called "laboring" class, were dissatisfied. There soon 
began an agitation for a democratic constitution — a ' ' Peo- 
ple' s Charter, ' ' as they called it. The aim was the enfran- 
chisement of the masses. The immediate points demanded 
in the great petition of 1839 were six in number — 
the ballot, universal suffrage, equal electoral districts, 
an annual election of Parliament, abolition of the prop- 
erty qualification for members, a salary for members. 
These seem reasonable enough to Americans. But the 
movement for their adoption in the decade from 1838 to 
1848 was unsuccessful. Its methods were agitation and 



218 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

violence. The Chartists soon became associated in the 
public mind with revolutionists and socialists. Their 
demands accordingly were discredited. And when the 
year 1848 brought revolution and turmoil to the whole 
Continent, the people of England became thoroughly 
convinced that Chartism in England was virtually iden- 
tical with the Red Republicanism which had drenched 
the streets of Paris in blood. And so the cause of 
popular enfranchisement was set back another decade. 
In 1857 the task was resumed. But now it was 
taken up by the great Liberal party, and their methods 
were those of constitutional political action. Under 
their influence, directly or indirectly, the work was 
carried on until now it has very nearly reached a 
triumphant conclusion. 

SUMMARY. 

The English "reform" acts of this century were intended 
to make the government more representative. 

In 1827 Roman Catholics were made eligible to Parliament. 

The Reform Act of 1832, thrice passed by the Commons, 
was carried through the Lords by the threat of the king to 
create enough Liberal peers to enact it. 

The Reform Act of 1832 redistributed the seats in the House 
of Commons and materially extended the franchise. The 
result was that political power was transferred from the 
upper to the middle classes. 

After 1832 there was a reconstruction of political parties. 

In 1834 slavery was abolished in all British possessions, and 
the system of poor relief was reformed. 

The Chartists demanded the ballot, universal suffrage, equal 
electoral districts, annual Parliamentary elections, abolition of 
property qualification for members, and salaries for members. 
Adopting violence as their means of agitation, they became 
associated with revolutionists and socialists and were de- 
feated. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE PROGRESS OF REFORM. 

Parliamentary reform in the second half of the 
century has gone on rather steadily in the direction of 
democracy. The Conservatives have vied with the 
Liberals in adopting - such measures- — not because the 
Conservatives are essentially a party of reform, but 
because reform was necessary to retaining power. In 
1859 a Conservative bill failed, and in i860 and again in 
1866 the Liberals attempted in vain to carry a bill. 
In 1867 the Conservatives were in office, and Disraeli 
introduced a measure which was carried. He intended of 1867. 
to make no change which would diminish the balance of 
classes, but in Parliament his bill was greatly simplified. 
It was in effect merely an extension of the Act of 1832, 
but was by no means so carefully drawn. More small 
boroughs were disfranchised, there was a further assign- 
ment of representatives to populous places, and the 
franchise was extended by lowering the property qualifi- 
cation. 

The next reform related to contested elections. Par- 
liament had extorted from the crown, after a long 
struggle, the exclusive right to judge in such cases. 
This English principle was imitated in the Constitution 
of the United States, and in that of all the states of the 
American Union. The result here, as in England, has 
been that election contests have been decided on party 
grounds, rather than on the merits of the question. 
So scandalous did this abuse become that, in 1770, 

219 



220 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



Contested 
elections left to 
the courts, 
1868. 



Secret ballot, 
1872. 



Act for the pre- 
vention of cor- 
rupt practices, 
1883. 



the House of Commons substituted an Elections Com- 
mittee with full power in place of the House. But 
partisanship was still the determining factor, and in 1868 
the great improvement was made of referring all election 
disputes to courts of law. These contests are now 
quietly decided, just as are any other lawsuits, on legal 
grounds. It is high time that we in the United States 
followed so sensible an example. 

A viva voce ballot was a direct premium on intimida- 
tion and bribery. We long since learned that here, 
although our inefficient ballot laws were no great gain. 
Advancing democracy requires that the voter shall be 
protected from coercion, and that the public shall be 
protected against a corrupted vote. These necessities 
more than counterbalance the supposed advantage from 
the preponderance given to wealth and education by an 
open ballot. And in 1872, the Liberal administration 
of Mr. Gladstone was able to carry a ballot act. It is 
an elaborate measure, being substantially on the lines 
now familiar to us as the ' ' Australian system. ' ' Its 
merit is, in a word, that it insures practical secrecy in 
voting. 

Notwithstanding the secret ballot, it was found that 
elections were very expensive. Votes were still bought. 
To be sure, there was nothing like the open corruption 
of the last century. But a pure ballot is essential when 
the ballot has so vast importance in government. Mr. 
Gladstone's second ministry, in 1883, enacted a drastic 
law for the prevention of corrupt practices. A maxi- 
mum sum is set, beyond which a candidate's expenses 
must not go. The legitimate objects of these expenses 
are minutely regulated. Conveying voters to the polls 
in vehicles is forbidden. Bribery, treating, and undue 
influence are misdemeanors punishable with a year's 



The Progress of Reform. 



221 



imprisonment. A candidate detected in corrupt prac- 
tices is disqualified from sitting in Parliament, voting, 
or holding any office for seven years (the legal dura- 
tion of Parliament), and from ever representing the 
constituency in which the offense was committed. 

The acts of 1872 and 1883 together have virtually 
rooted bribery out of English elections. A hundred 
years ago they were the most corrupt the world has ever 
seen. Now, there are none purer. These two acts 
should be on the statute books of every American state. 

In this same administration of Mr. Gladstone, the 
last step was taken in Parliamentary reform. In 1884, 
suffrage was made practically universal, no less than 
3,000,000 votes being added to the polling lists. These 
were largely the agricultural laborers. In the following 
year the seats were redistributed. The 
last vestiges of the old arbitrary ap- 
portionments disappeared, and elec- 
toral districts were constituted on the 
American plan, according to popu- 
lation.* English boroughs returning 
one hundred thirty-two members were abol- 
ished. London received sixty-two members in 
place of the half dozen it had before the Reform 
Bill of 1832. The total membership of the 
House of Commons was made six hundred seventy. 

Thus was substantially completed the task which 
Oliver Cromwell, Earl Chatham, and the younger 
Pitt had tried in vain, and which the great Reform 
Act of 1832 merely began. The British House of 
Commons now represents the people of the United 



Reform acts of 
1884 and 1885. 



* Of the 670 members, England and Wales have 253 for the counties, 
237 for boroughs, and 5 for the universities ; Scotland has 39 for the 
counties, 31 for boroughs, and 2 for universities; Ireland has 85 for the 
counties, 16 for boroughs, and 2 for universities. Thus England has 
495, Scotland 72, and Ireland 103. 




From Harper's Ma 

The Noble Peer. 



222 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Reform of the 

Commons 

completed. 



The House 
of Peers. 



Local govern- 
ment. 



Kingdom. Before 1832 it represented a handful of rich 
men. It is now a modern body. 

The House of Lords is still a medieval institution. 
Twenty-six bishops of the Established Church and a few 
judges are members ex officiis. Eighteen Scotch and 
twenty-eight Irish peers are elected. The rest of the 
nearly six hundred peers sit by hereditary right. A 
quorum consists of three members. Such a legislative 
body seems to Americans a grotesque anachronism. And 
the ' ' mending or ending ' ' of the House of Peers is a 
problem in general governmental reform which it now 
seems likely that the not distant future will see solved. 

The reform of local government has been a matter of 
quite as great moment as that of Parliament itself. The 
aggregation of people into cities is one of the most 
characteristic facts of modern civilization. In our coun- 
try the difficulties come from the rapid and vast growth 
of urban population endowed with all the privileges of 
democracy. In England this growth has been super- 
imposed on a system of local government which had 
been developed under the obsolete conditions of medieval 
life. When the first reformed Parliament met, nothing 
could be more absurd, from a modern point of view, 
than the prevailing civic methods. The ancient charters 
vested municipal control in the hands of a small cor- 
porate body. This included a mayor and council, and 
sometimes a number of ' ' freemen ' ' in addition. Quite 
often the mayor and council elected their own succes- 
sors, thus literally forming a "close corporation." 
The Parliamentary franchise was sometimes vested in 
the freemen, more often in the governing corporation. 
And the mayor and council determined the admission of 
freemen. Besides the Parliamentary franchise, there 
were often other advantages which belonged to the free- 



The Progress of Reform. 223 

men and corporation — emoluments of civic property, 
exemptions from tolls, and the like. And these little 
oligarchies were not infrequently corrupt, and not un- 
naturally came to regard and to use the public funds as waipole, His- 
their own. In one borough, for instance, which owned iii^^j^ 1 * 11 * 1 ' 
lands giving an income of ,£6,000 a year, it was decided 
to mortgage the property and to divide the proceeds 
outright among the freemen. 

In 1833 the reformed Parliament appointed a commis- 
sion to inquire into the subject of municipal government 
in England. This commission reported in 1835, and 
their report was made the basis of an act which made a 
sweeping reform. The rubbish which the city charters 
had gathered through the ages was swept away. Local Municipal Re- 

S S , . S j .. , form Act, 1835. 

government was vested in a mayor and council chosen 
directly by the people. 

This great act was second in importance only to the 
Reform Act of 1832. The latter rescued the House of 
Commons from an oligarchy of rich landowners. The 
former rescued the large boroughs from a group of cor- 
rupt oligarchies, and vested local affairs in the people 
whose interests were concerned. 

Rural administration continued confused and inefficient 
for many years more. The counties were little more 
than nominal divisions. A tangle of jurisdictions over- 
spread the country. There were various kinds of par- 
ishes — poor law parishes, highway parishes, ecclesiastical 
parishes, each administered by its own vestrymen. 
Parishes were grouped into unions for certain purposes. 
And these various parishes and unions overlapped in all 
manner of ways. In 1888 a Conservative government county coun- 
enacted a reform bill which provided a uniform system of Cl s 
local government. Each county has a council, elected 
by the people, which has general charge of all public 



224 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



London. 



business in the county limits. A local government 
board, whose president is a member of the cabinet, ex- 
ercises a general supervision over all local governing 
bodies. 

Among the counties organized in accordance with the 
foregoing act is the county of London. The metropolis 
was not a city in the American sense at all. The ' ' city ' ' 
is about a square mile in the heart of the metropolitan 
area. It is the old original London, with a population 
now of not more than 50,000 actual residents. Many 
thousands more pour into it in the morning and leave at 
night. Around this ancient nucleus has gathered a pop- 
ulation of 4,000,000, filling the adjacent parishes of 
Middlesex and Kent, and overflowing into the country 
districts. These urban parishes, however, have never 
been annexed to the ' ' city, ' ' as would have been done 
in America, but until 1888 each was left under its simple 
parish organization, as if still in the country. From time 
to time various boards were constituted for metropolitan 
business — police, fire, and the like. But they were quite 
separate from one another, and even their areas of juris- 
diction did not always coincide. By the act of 1888, a 
county of London was created which contained the met- 
ropolitan area (about one hundred twenty square miles) 
outside the limits of the ' ' city. ' ' The London County 
Council has the same functions in general as have other 
similar bodies. 

The old ' ' city ' ' remains a distinct corporation, with 
its lord mayor and aldermen, its separate police, and its 
"freemen," who are the members of the thirty-nine 
ancient livery companies. These companies are very 
wealthy, having an aggregate income of about ^800, 000 
per annum. 
Free trade. One of the most far-reaching social changes of the 



The "city." 



The Progress of Reform. 225 

century has been the adoption of free trade. England 
shared with all other nations in the Middle Ages the ideas 
of commercial reprisal. The duties which were intended 
to restrict foreign competition were levied on a multitude 
of articles. The invention of machinery and the peculiar 
position of England during the French revolutionary 
wars established English manufactures on a firm footing. 
But the interests of agriculture were especially dear to 
the heart of Parliament. That body before the Reform 
Act represented the landowners. And the corn bills en- 
acted in 1815 and succeeding years were intended to 
protect British grain from falling to ruinous rates, owing 
to importation from the Continent. Importation was 
forbidden when the price of domestic corn (the Eng- 
lish term for grain) should fall to eighty shillings a 
quarter. Later laws reduced this minimum, and in 1842 
a sliding scale of duties was adopted. The tendency 
was in any event to increase the price of grain, which, of 
course, fell as a sore burden on the laborers already suf- 
fering from scant work and scantier wages. And when 
farmers were led to believe that the price would be high, 
they sowed grain in such quantities that the supply was 
enormously increased. And this competition, of course, 
in turn tended to make lower prices. And so nobody was 
satisfied. In 1 838 a corn law league was founded, Richard 
Cobden and John Bright being its leading spirits. The 
league made an educational campaign, lasting through 
several years, which ended in convincing the bulk of 
Englishmen of the impolicy of protection. TheCorn Laws 
were repealed in 1846, and by 1852 the protective duties Repeal ofthe 
were all gone. English wealth has enormously increased 
under free trade. Whether the gain has gone largely into 
the pocket of the poor laboring man, for whose benefit the 
corn law repeal was urged in 1846, is not so clear. 



Corn Laws. 



226 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

Another reform which the present century has wit- 
nessed in England is that of the civil service. In the 
early part of the reign of George III., favoritism and 
corruption were rife in all branches of the government. 
Members of Parliament insisted on their share in the 
spoils of office, and public positions were made political 
plunder. But before George III. died a better spirit pre- 
vailed. For one thing, placeholders were forbidden to 
vote. In some departments a pass examination was re- 
quired as a condition to appointment. The final reform 
of the system was effected by executive action, and not 

l853 by act of Parliament. In 1853 the government appointed 

a commission to investigate the subject. This commis- 
sion reported in favor of the method of appointment on 

1855. examination, and accordingly in 1855 a Civil Service 

Commission was appointed, and under its direction a 
limited competitive examination was made the rule for 
all candidates for office. This at once raised the quality 
of the whole service and at the same time greatly re- 
lieved members of Parliament from the pressure of office- 
seekers. The House of Commons at first opposed the 
reform, but a few years convinced them of its value. 
The method was improved and extended from year to 

1870. year, and in 1870 the Commission was empowered to 

insist on a general competitive examination in all cases. 
Thus, the public service was thrown open to all English- 
men who were competent. Tenure is for good behavior. 
On a change of party in the national administration, only 
some forty or fifty heads of departments, who are re- 
garded as political officers, lose their places. The great 
bulk of civil servants hold their positions regardless of 
politics. This has proved one of the wisest of the long 
list of public reforms of the age. A national canvass in 
England now turns on policies rather than on persons. 



The Progress of Reform. 227 

SUMMARY. 

The Reform Act of 1867 extended the law of 1832. 

Stringent laws for the protection of the ballot were enacted 
in 1872 and 1883. 

In 1884 and 1885 Gladstone completed the process of Parlia- 
mentary reform by making suffrage practically universal, and 
by abolishing the last vestige of the old system of apportion- 
ment. 

The reform of local government has been carried out 
through the Municipal Reform Act of 1835, which did for the 
cities what the act of 1832 did for England as a whole, and 
through the County Councils Act of 1888, which dealt with 
rural government and with the government of London. 

The protective system was abolished by a series of acts, 
1846-52. 

The civil service since 1870 has been based upon the merit 
system. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE IRISH QUESTION. 

If Ireland were sunk to the bottom of the sea, or 
removed to the middle of the Pacific, all England would 
draw a sigh of relief. For the "Emerald Isle" is the 
most perplexing problem with which British statesmen 
have had to grapple since the days of Henry VIII. 

The primary fact to be remembered is that Ireland is 
conquered a conquered country. And the present tokens of con- 

country, quest are not a few. 

To begin with, the island is governed by a centralized 
authority wielded directly from Dublin Castle, the seat 
of the English lord lieutenant. To illustrate : 

The Irish Local Government Board controls all cor- 
porations and town commissioners. And the board is 
appointed by the "Castle." 

The fiscal affairs of each county are managed by a 
grand jury, which is selected by the sheriff. He is 
appointed by the "Castle." Prisons, lunatic asylums, 
education, are all managed by central boards appointed 
by the ' ' Castle. ' ' 

The metropolitan police of Dublin and the 13,000 
rural police (the Irish constabulary) are managed each 
by a commissioner appointed by the "Castle." All 
magistrates, the board of public works, the fishery 
board, are appointed by the "Castle." 

Thus, there is little local self-government in Ireland. 
All is managed by the English administration. 

In the second place, the Protestant population is 



The Irish Question. 229 

simply an English garrison. The bulk of the land- 
owners are English, dating their holdings from the 
confiscations of the seventeenth century. This is espe- 
cially true in the north and east. The Protestants form 
about a fifth of the population. And they were origi- 
nally imported to keep the Irish down. And so every- 
thing tends to keep alive the memory of the ferocious 
religious and political wars of two centuries ago. 

Before the Union of 1800, Ireland had a separate 

Parliament. However, only Protestants were eligible The Union, 
' ■' & 1800. 

as members, and until 1793 only Protestants had the 
right of suffrage. And this minority legislature was 
taken away by the Act of Union. 

This was a plan of William Pitt, and he secured the 
assent of the Irish Parliament to its own extinction by Lecky, 

J England in the 

most lavish bribery. Peerages, offices in Church and Eighteenth 
State, and even money, were scattered liberally to Vo1 - vm - 
secure votes. And besides these vulgar means, Pitt 
practically promised that, if his measure should pass, 
Roman Catholics should be freed from the laws inca- 
pacitating them from officeholding.* 

These means won success. The separate Irish Par- 
liament was abolished, and in lieu of it one hundred 
Irish members (all Protestants) took their seats in the 
House of Commons at Westminster, and five spiritual 
and twenty-eight temporal Irish peers were added to the 
House of Lords. 

But when Pitt set out to justify the hopes he had 
aroused by enacting Catholic emancipation, good King 
George III. discovered that his coronation oath forbade, 
and so Pitt resigned. This was in 1801. 



* Under the law as it then stood, no one could hold office, either civil or 
military, without taking oaths abjuring the papal supremacy and cardinal 
Roman Catholic doctrines and expressly admitting the ecclesiastical suprem- 
acy of the British crown. 



230 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Catholic 

Emancipation, 

1829. 



The repeal 
movement. 



« Young 
Ireland." 



The 

« Fenians." 



Disestablish- 
ment of the 
Irish Church. 



The subject was resumed after the French wars came 
to an end. A vigorous agitation was kept up in 
Ireland, and in 1828 Daniel O'Connell, a Roman 
Catholic, was elected to Parliament. He was refused a 
seat. But in the following year the ministry yielded to 
the storm, and a bill was passed which allowed Roman 
Catholics to sit in either House of Parliament and to be 
eligible to all offices, civil or military, except those of 
Regent, Lord Chancellor, Viceroy of Ireland, and 
Royal Commissioner to the General Assembly of the 
Church of Scotland. 

O'Connell had declared that Catholic emancipation 
would quiet all disturbance in Ireland. But no sooner 
had he taken his seat in Parliament than he began an 
agitation for the repeal of the Act of Union. He was 
followed by the Irish people with tremendous enthusiasm, 
until it appeared that his policy was merely one of con- 
stitutional agitation. Then his more excitable followers 
deserted him and formed a radical party known as 
"Young Ireland," whose armies were to use force if 
necessary. And in 1848 there was an attempt at insur- 
rection, though it was easily quelled. And this fiasco 
put an end to Irish agitation for the time. 

The American Civil War of 1861-65 gave employ- 
ment to many Irish soldiers. After peace was restored, 
not a few of these men engaged in hare-brained schemes 
of invading England, and did actually attempt to invade 
Canada from Vermont. But nothing came of this vis- 
ionary movement. 

Meanwhile one serious reform had been accomplished. 
The Episcopal Church had been established by law in 
Ireland since the Reformation. But while England and 
Scotland and Wales had very generally accepted the 
new doctrines of Protestantism, the people of Ireland 



The Irish Question. 231 

clung with passionate fidelity to the Roman Catholic 

faith. And the Episcopal State Church was thus only 

another badge of the conquest. Its adherents were a 

small minority — only about six hundred twenty thousand 

out of five million people. In some parishes there were 

not more than a dozen attendants. In others there McCarthy, 11., 

446. 
were a church and a parish, but no listeners at all. 

Sydney Smith said: "On an Irish Sabbath the bell of 

a neat parish church often summons to service only the 

parson and an occasional conforming clerk ; while two 

hundred yards off, a thousand Catholics are huddled }t wa ? shown 

• that in 150 par- 

tOgether in a miserable hovel, and pelted by all the ishes there was 

1 not one Protes- 

storms of heaven." And the trouble was that the tant and in 860 

parishes there 

whole land was taxed for the support of this minority were i eS s than 

Church. Not infrequently the peasant's cow was seized 

in distraint for tithes, and that to maintain a religion 

which he abhorred. And in many cases the incumbent The tithe war. 

of the living was a non-resident, actually never seeing 

the parish which reluctantly paid his stipend. Such 

taxes were collected with great difficulty, and the parson 

had to call on the police and the military to enforce his 

rights. But in the end there was a general strike against 

payment of tithes. And in 1838 the trouble was settled 

by an act of Parliament which remitted tithes from the 

peasant and converted them into a charge on the land, 

payable by the landlord. So the peasant in the end 

really had to pay, in the shape of increased rent, but 

there was no more difficulty in collecting. 

But turbulence and trouble were still the lot of Ire- Disestabiisn- 
land. Famine starved the peasant, he could not pay his church, 1868. 
rent and so was turned out of his cottage, reprisals were 
made on the landlord in the shape of murder and 
arson. In 1868 Gladstone was prime minister for the 
first time, and he signalized his advent to power by the 



232 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish Church. 
The former was simple enough. But disendowment was 
a difficult problem. Some funds were allowed to be 
retained by the new free Episcopal Church in Ireland. 
Some were granted to the parsons in compensation for 
the livings they had lost. Some were retained by the 
government, to be applied to the relief of unavoidable 
suffering. But Ireland was not yet pacified. The old 
penal laws against Roman Catholics had been repealed. 
Roman Catholics had been endowed with full political 
rights. The odious Minority Church had been over- 
thrown. Two grievances, however, yet inflamed Irish 
national spirit. Ireland did not govern itself. And the 
peasant who tilled the soil did not own it. 
The Land The land question, in truth, overshadowed everything 

else. And it has been one of great difficulty. 

The soil of Ireland belonged to a small number of 
owners, each having as a rule a considerable estate. 
Many of the landlords were absentees most of the time, 
depending on their rents for the income which they 
lavished on luxurious living out of Ireland. The land 
was leased in small farms, often in little patches. It was 
the obvious interest of the owner to get as much rent as 
possible, and also to evict promptly a tenant who did 
not pay. The little holdings were usually let from year 
to year, and the farmer was expected to make all the 
improvements needed.* In case of eviction, any such 
improvements were simply lost to him, as the landlord 
would make no compensation. The inevitable result of 
this system was that the tenant aimed to get out of the 
land as much as possible and to put into it as little as 



* Residences, cottages, and farm buildings are meant by " improvements." 
The demand for land was so great that an ejected tenant found it hard to 
secure another place. 



The Irish Question. 233 

possible. No worse plan could probably be devised by 
human ingenuity. Wretched tillage, scanty and reluc- 
tant improvement, miserable cottages, a precarious liv- 
ing, were the common course of things. And the least 
bad fortune with crops meant that the margin for rent 
vanished, with eviction a probable result. The peas- 
antry universally lived on the potato. And in 1845, 
when that crop totally failed, there was nothing but 
famine before them. 

The tenants in Ulster were in somewhat better case The Ulster 
than others. A custom there prevailed of making com- 
pensation for improvements which the tenant made. 
And so long as he paid his rent he was entitled to con- 
tinue his holding. 

In 1870 Gladstone attacked the land problem. His Land Act 
act legalized in all Ireland the Ulster tenant right, secur- ° l87 °" 
ing to the farmer compensation both for eviction on any 
other ground than non-payment of rent, and for any 
investments in the way of improvements. The great 
thing to be desired was that the farmer should own the 
soil, and to that end the government offered to loan two 
thirds of the purchase price to any tenant who would 
buy. 

In 1881 Mr. Gladstone was again in power, and he L an <iAct 
procured the enactment of another law designed to of l88lf 
remedy defects which experience had shown in the act 
of 1870. That act had virtually given the tenant a 
legal interest in his holding. To make this secure, it 
was now provided that he might sell his interest, that a 
fair rent might on application be fixed by a court created 
for that purpose, and that there should be no eviction 
except for non-payment of rent, injury to the property, 
or the like. These were called the " three F's" — Free ~, .. -, 

1 he three r s. 

Sale, Fair Rent, Fixity of Tenure. 



234 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

Land Act of M r Gladstone's next legislation on this question was 

the Land Purchase Act of 1885. The aim was still further 
to increase the number of owners. The government now 
offered to advance the cash for the whole amount of the 
purchase price, it having been found that in most cases 
it was quite impossible for the tenant to obtain the one 
third necessary under the act of 1870. The repayment 
was to be at the rate of four per cent per annum for 
forty-nine years, which it was calculated would extin- 
guish principal and interest on the debt. This act 
greatly stimulated purchases. Many thousands of the 
more thrifty tenants have taken advantage of it, and 
thus far the annual installments have been paid promptly. 
If in this way the land of Ireland can pass into the 
hands of its cultivators, as is the case in France, it can 
hardly fail to make the Irish people in time prosperous. 
Wealth and comfort must then greatly increase. And 
with the pernicious system which causes it, the squalid 
misery of the peasantry must largely disappear. 

Few things are dearer to the American than the 

Home Rule. privilege of managing affairs purely local without inter- 
ference. And the Irishman has no such privilege. As 
was pointed out above, the England administration con- 
trols all Irish matters. And the Home Rule which the 
Irish Nationalists seek is an Irish Parliament em- 
powered to manage unhindered all business which con- 
cerns only Ireland. This is not very different from the 
position of an American state legislature. 

The Home Rule party of 1870 aimed to secure such 
Irish local rights by Parliamentary agitation. The lead- 

Parneli. ership soon passed to Charles Stewart Parnell, who 

found that his little group of Home Rulers were given 
little heed in the pressure of imperial legislation. Then 
he resorted to obstruction — in other words, the Home 



The Irish Question. 



235 



Rulers succeeded in bringing all business to a standstill. 
This merely enraged Parliament, and finally led to the 
adoption of a rule for the closure of debate. The 
"previous question," so common in American legisla- 
tive bodies, had until then had no place in Parliament. 

In 1879 an Irish 
Land League had 
been formed, with 
the object of com- 
pelling landlords to 
sell their property to 
the tenants at a low 
price. The method 
was the simple one 
of refusing to pay 
rent. But in 1881 
the League had 
caused so much 
violence that it was 
suppressed. 

Its place was 
taken by the Na- 
tional League, which 
set out to get what 
it considered fair 
rents. The "plan of 
campaign ' ' was to 
tender the landlord 
a rent which was 
deemed fair, and if 
he refused it, to pay it over to the League in trust. If 
eviction followed, no one was allowed to take or to work 
the farm on pain of a general "boycott." In 1877, how- 
ever, the "plan of campaign" and the "boycott" were 




Obstruction. 



The closure. 



The Laud 
League. 



Salisbury. 
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoigne-Cecil, Marquis 
of Salisbury. Born, 1830. Educated at Eton 
and Christ Church, Oxford. Member of Par- 
liament, 1853-68. Secretary for India, 1866-7. 
Ambassador to Constantinople, 1876. Foreign 
secretary, 1878. Leader of Conservative party 
since the death of Beaconsfield, 1881. 



The National 
League. 



The name was 
given from Cap- 
tain Boycott, to 
whom the pro- 
cess was first 
applied. 



236 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



Rule Bill. 



both condemned by a papal rescript as immoral. And 

that ended them. 

The extension of the franchise by the acts of 1884-5 

resulted in the return of an Irish delegation in the 
The first Home House of Commons which was practically a unit for 

Home Rule. The 
Liberal party, under 
the lead of Mr. Glad- 
stone, then adopted 
the measure, and in 
1886 a bill was intro- 
duced providing for 
an Irish legislature. 
This was opposed by 
the Conservatives as 
a step toward Irish 
independence. A 
section of the Liberal 
party (the Liberal 
Unionists), led by 
Mr. Joseph Chamber- 
lain, the Duke of 
Devonshire, and oth- 
ers, took the same 
view, and on the di- 
vision the ministry 

ROSEBERY. , 

Archibald Philip Primrose, Earl of Rosebery. Was defeated. Parlia- 
Born, 1847. Educated at Eton College and at j- i i 

Christ Church, Oxford. Leader of Liberal nient Was dissolved, 
party after Gladstone until 1896. 1 . 1 1 , • 

y and at the election 

a Conservative and Liberal Unionist majority was re- 
turned. Accordingly the Gladstone ministry resigned, 
and the Marquis of Salisbury became premier. 

The question of Home Rule then became dormant 
until a new Parliamentary election was held in 1892, 




Defeat of Glad- 
stone, 1886. 



The Irish Question. 237 

when Mr. Gladstone again returned to power. A new 
Home Rule Bill was introduced, and in 1893 it passed HonfeRuie 
the House of Commons. But it was promptly rejected BiI1 > l8 93- 
by the House of Lords. That ended the subject — per- 
haps permanently. The disgrace and death of Mr. 
Parnell caused a division in the ranks of the Irish 
Nationalists in Parliament, and at the next election they 
ceased to hold the balance of power between the parties. 

In 1894 Mr. Gladstone, yielding to advancing age, 
retired from the ministry. The Earl of Rosebery suc- 
ceeded him as prime minister and as leader of the 
Liberal party. His leadership, however, proved far 
from successful. In 1895 the ministry were defeated 
on a minor question in the House of Commons, and 
promptly resigned. Thus a Conservative and Liberal 
Unionist ministry returned to power, with the Marquis 
of Salisbury as premier and Mr. Chamberlain as colonial 
secretary. At the dissolution which soon followed a 
new election was held and the Liberals were over- 
whelmingly defeated. The Conservatives and Liberal 
Unionists greatly outnumbered the Liberals and Irish 
combined. 

Foreign affairs have caused great perplexity to the 
Salisbury administration. There has been trouble with 
the South African Republic, with Germany, with the 
United States, a dangerous war with the hill tribes in 
India, a revival of the Eastern Question caused by the 
massacres in Armenia and the insurrection of Crete, 
and serious rivalry with the French in Africa. War 
with civilized nations, however, has been avoided. In 
1897 the queen closed the sixtieth year of her reign, 
which has been the longest in English history. The 
occasion was celebrated with brilliant festivities, in 
which a significant feature was the delegations sent to 



238 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

London from the colonies. England is beyond ques- 
tion the greatest colonizing power which the world has 
ever seen. And British colonies are now a large 
factor in the British Empire. 

SUMMARY. 

Ireland is a conquered country and is governed by the 
English administration. 

Religious differences keep alive old animosities. 

Pitt secured the acceptance of the Act of Union by promising 
Catholic emancipation, but George III. refused to execute the 
agreement. 

In 1868 the Irish Church was disestablished. 

The Land Acts of 1870, 1881, and 1885 were intended to 
increase peasant proprietorship by making the tenancy more 
permanent, by providing for compensation for improvements, 
and by assisting the tenants to purchase their holdings. 

Since 1870 the demand has been for Home Rule — a program 
adopted by Gladstone and the Liberal party, but rejected in 
Parliament. 



PART V.-THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EASTERN 
EUROPE. 

PRELIMINARY. 

Eastern Europe is in strong contrast to the west. 
As one passes from Germany toward Constantinople, 
it is through a tangle of races, speaking a Babel of 
tongues and inspired by diverse and hostile religions. 
Again, in the west we have seen the growth of popular 
liberty and the passing of autocratic government. But 
over all the east for many centuries the shadow of the 
Turk has cast a blight. Turkish rule is as despotic as 
was that of Metternich, as corrupt as that of the 
Neapolitan Bourbons, and besides has a brutality and 
inefficiency peculiar to itself. This misrule has sunk 
the fairest lands of Europe into poverty and misery. 

The key to political power in eastern Europe is the 
city of Constantinople. The Turks yet hold it, not 
because of their power, but because Europe cannot 
agree to see any great western nation have it. And at 
the southern side of the eastern Mediterranean coast 
lies the Suez Canal, the key to Asiatic traffic. And 
Egypt controls the canal. 

The possession of Constantinople and of Egypt, and 
the relation of the Turks to their subject Christian races 
— these are the eastern questions. The Mohammedans 
a few centuries ago nearly overran the world. Power 
has now shifted to the west, and the followers of Islam 
will not long be permitted to stay in Europe. But who 
shall inherit their spoils? 

239 



CHAPTER XXII. 



The land. 



The people. 



RUSSIA. 

The great Christian empire of eastern Europe is 
Russia. It includes not merely a half of Europe, but 
also a third of Asia. The entire dominions of the tsar, 
indeed, comprise a sixth of all the land surface of the 
globe, being twice the area of Europe or of the United 
States of America. Its vast extent is indicated by the 
fact that the reindeer is found in northern Russia and 

the camel at the 
other extreme. 

The population 
of the empire of 
all the Russias is 
over 119,000,- 
000 of people — 
as many as in 
Germany, Aus- 
tria, and France 
together, and 
nearly twice as 
many as in the 
United States. 

This vast mul- 
titude of people is 
a motley collec- 
tion of Oriental 
races. In Asia are numerous Tatars, Turcomans, and 
the like. The Europeans, however, some 94,000,000, 
are Slavs by a large majority. About two thirds of 




Russia. 



241 



them are Russians. Then there are a few million of 
Poles, and a sprinkling of Serbs, Bulgarians, and Cekhs. 
Along the Baltic shores are a few Teutons — Swedes and 
Germans. And in the northeast are Tatars, both Bud- 
dhists and Mohammedans. 

The Russians are a very religious people. Churches Religion 
abound, Moscow having no less than four hundred 
thirty. The intellectual movement of the present cen- 
tury is rationalistic — perhaps with an atheistic tendency. 
But this has left the ideas of the bulk of the nation quite 
untouched. To be sure, their religious ideas are as much 
superstition as anything The nation was converted from 
paganism in the tenth century by wholesale, and so the 
lower orders have never lost their notions of fetichism 
in connection with church ceremonies. Still, the lower 
middle class are great Bible readers, and are not materi- 
ally different from the Methodists of our own land. 

The national Church of Russia is a branch of that 
great Oriental body which we call, loosely, the Greek 
Church. It is a product of the great schism which in 
the Middle Ages divided Christendom, and which has 
never yet been healed. To-day the eastern branch 
might more properly be called Slavonic than Greek, as 
seventy million of its eighty million adherents are Slavs. 
About sixty million of them are Russians. 

The Oriental Church differs from the Western (Latin) 
Church in some vital points. In the first place is an ^"western 
abstruse question of the independence of the persons in Church - 
the Trinity. In regard to the relation of the Church to 
the civil power there is another material divergence. 
The Eastern Church has no common head corresponding 
to the pope, but is a series of national bodies, and has 
always submitted to the State. The Eastern Church 
steadfastly rejects the papal supremacy, holding to the 



The national 
Church. 



The Eastern 



242 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The Church of 
Russia. 



The popes. 



Schisms. 



entire independence of each national Church. The 
eastern liturgy is highly ritualistic, and in place of Latin 
uses the old Greek or the old Slavonic. But the Oriental 
liturgy allows no images, using pictures instead, and 
forbids all musical instruments except the human voice. 
As to other practices it may be added that the sacra- 
ment of baptism is administered only by immersion, 
that the clergy are married, and that the laity are 
encouraged to read the Bible in the vernacular. 
' The Church of Russia is an established State Church 
under the direct rule of the tsar. He appoints all the 
prelates, and no action is valid without his assent. The 
clergy, as in the Roman Church, consist of regulars 
and seculars — in other words, monks and parish priests. 
In the east, however, while there are many monasteries, 
there are no monastic orders. The parish priests {popes 
they are called) must marry. But as the bishops must 
be unmarried, they are appointed from the monks. The 
village popes are not an enviable class. They are im- 
perfectly educated, always poor, and with a family to 
support, mostly on the paltry fees they can extort for 
their pious services. The peasants haggle with the 
popes as with the butcher or grocer. Indeed, the peas- 
ant's idea of the efficacy of the priestly office hardly 
rises above fetichism. It is practically their notion that 
the popes drive a wholesale and retail trade in charms. 
And the popes are as densely ignorant and as intensely 
bigoted as might be expected. 

The Church of Russia is honeycombed with dissent. 
The first great schism occurred in the seventeenth cen- 
tury. At that time the patriarch, happening to be a 
scholarly man, set out to revise the liturgy and missals. 
The results were received with pious horror by many, 
and when the reforms were enforced by Peter the Great, 




Alexander III. 
Born, March 10, 1845. Became tsar, March 13, 1S81. Died, November 1, 1894. 



244 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

the "old believers," as they called themselves, cut loose 
from the State Church. They felt sure that Peter was 
the devil himself, that his ministers were imps from hell, 
and that it was their duty to reject every innovation 
thus introduced by his Satanic majesty.* 

But, on the whole, the " old believers" to-day are an 
honest and industrious people. Their main objection 
now is to a State Church and to Byzantine pomp in 
worship. 

Besides the "old believers," there is a swarm of other 
dissenting sects, rationalistic, communistic, ascetic, some 
of them not unlike many of our Protestant denomina- 
tions. They all agree in hatred of the orthodox State 
Church, and are all alike persecuted by it. 
The govern- The Russian government is the last in Europe of the 

state. absolute, hereditary monarchies. The tsar is the State. 

In him are united the entire legislative, executive, and 
judicial powers. These he exercises through four coun- 
cils, all of whose members he appoints, and all of whose 
acts are valid only with his assent. The Council of 
State is a sort of rudimentary legislature, being, how- 
ever, only a consultative body. The Setiate is the 
supreme court of the empire, and has a general super- 
vision over the administrative department. The Holy 
Sy?iod administers the State Church, and the Council of 
Ministers form the tsar's cabinet, the members being 
heads of the executive departments. 

The administrative system of the empire is merely 
a centralized despotism, tempered here and there by 
some scanty local self-government. And administrative 

* " They carried their resistance into all the details of private life. As 
matters of conscience, they avoided the use of tobacco, for ' the things which 
come out of him, those are they that defile the man' (Mark vii. 15); of tea 
and coffee, as foreign productions ; of the potato, as the fruit with which the 
serpent tempted Eve." — Heard, 191-2. The "old believers" did not object 
to whisky, as St. Paul bade Timothy take a little wine (which is a shorter 
name for whisky) for his stomach's sake. 



Russia. 245 

and judicial officers alike are not unused to bribery. 

The most characteristic Russian social institution is 
the mir, or village commune of the peasants. The Tne mir. 
land which they cultivate belongs to the village as a 
whole, and is annually allotted to heads of families. 
The village affairs are conducted by the peasants in a 
thoroughly democratic way, all decisions requiring a 
unanimous vote. 

The peasants are exceedingly ignorant. In 1888 only 
twenty per cent of the recruits for the army could read 
and write. And vodka is their worst foe, next to 
superstition and ignorance. The liquor stores belong 
to the government, which derives from them a consider- 
able revenue, and so is directly interested in large sales. 

The Russians were originally an Oriental people, more 

Asiatic than European. But when Peter the Great be- Peter the Great, 

r . . 1689-1725. 

came tsar he set out to Europeamze, i. e. , to westernize, 

his realm, in its government, in its Church, and in 

social customs. From him dates the entrance of Russia 

into the European family of nations. 

At the opening of the nineteenth century Alexander 

I. ascended the throne. He was a man of many bril- Alexander 1., 

J 1801-25. 

liant qualities, and for a number of years prided himself 
on his liberal ideas. He did many things in the way of 
political reform, giving a constitution to Poland, even 
talking of a constitution for Russia, and beginning plans 
for the emancipation of the serfs. The censorship of 
the press was made more lenient, there was more toler- 
ation for dissenters, a foundation was made for a codifi- 
cation of the laws, and other measures of similar char- 
acter were projected. About the year 181 8 Alexander, 
for some unexplained reason, became converted to the 
views of Metternich. It is said that he became aware 
that his army was honeycombed with secret revolution- 



246 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Nicholas, 
1*25-55- 



It is said that 
the private sol- 
d i e r s cheered 
the constitution 
under the im- 
pression that 
that was the 
name of the 
Grand Duke 
Constantine's 
wife. 



1849. 



Alexander II., 

1855-81. 



ary societies which were plotting even against the life of 
the tsar. However that may be, for the rest of his reign 
he was a reactionary of reactionaries, and shared in the 
repressive measures which put down the revolutions 
of 1820 in southern Europe. And nothing more was 
heard of a Russian constitution. 

At his death his younger brother, Nicholas, succeeded 
to the crown. The accession was marked by a military 
revolt which was easily quelled. The officers who had 
invaded France in 18 14- 15 came back imbued with 
liberal ideas, which they endeavored to put in force in 
Russia. But the common soldiers were too ignorant to 
share in such views, and grape-shot speedily brought the 
insurgents to terms. Nicholas was a stern bigot. His 
motto was "Aristocracy, orthodoxy, nationality," and 
his reign for thirty years was marked by unbending 
despotism, the gloomiest religious intolerance, and a 
steady opposition to all foreign ideas. In 1833 Poland 
rebelled, and when the rising was put down the Polish 
constitution was taken away. When Austria was in the 
throes of insurrection, Nicholas gladly sent a Russian 
army to help crush the Hungarian rebels. But in the 
Crimean War the resources of the empire collapsed, and 
Nicholas died in the consciousness that his policy had 
failed to create real national power. 

His son, Alexander II., realized that the empire must 
be reformed, and he set out to make the needed changes. 

One great element of weakness was serfage. There 
were in the limits of the empire nearly forty-six million 
of the unfree, of whom about one half were peasants on 
crown estates, and some twenty million were held on the 
estates of the great landed proprietors. None of these 
were chattels, but all were attached to the soil. The 
crown serfs were practically free already, holding the 



Russia. 



247 



land by the payment of fixed rents. But by the great 
Emancipation Act of 1861, all the serfs were turned into 
freemen. They were given a certain quantity of land in 
permanent usufruct, on payment of a fixed quit-rent, 
and at any time this tenure was to be changed to own- 
ership on payment of a certain sum. And even this 
the government stood ready to advance, the peasant 
paying it in annual installments of six per cent for forty- 
nine years. 

Three years later an attempt was made at local self- 
government in the organization of district legislatures 
(zemstvos) chosen by popular suffrage. And in the 
same year the legal system was revised, regular courts 
and trial by jury taking the place of the arbitrary system 
of despotism. 

Meanwhile a Liberal party had grown up, which 
aimed to assimilate Russian institutions more definitely 
with those of western Europe. They sought an elec- 
tive national parliament, a responsible ministry, freedom 
of the press, and the right of habeas corpzis — the mere 
truisms of our constitutional liberties. But in 1863 
Poland again rose in the vain attempt to regain its lib- 
erty. The insurrection was quelled. And one result 
was to convince Alexander that he had gone too far, 
and that liberalism meant revolution. His policy of 
reform was ended. 

Then it was that the advanced section of the Russian 
Liberals became convinced that freedom could come 
only by force, and they organized with that end. 

Russian liberalism is largely tinged with socialistic 
ideas. Lavrov, for example, a prominent leader of one 
section, was a State socialist who would reorganize all 
Russia on the basis of the communistic organization of 
the mir. But the most radical "reformers" are the 



Emancipation 
of the serfs, 1S61. 



Governmental 
reform, 1864. 



The Liberal 
party. 



The Polish 
insurrection. 



Plots of revo- 
lution in Russia. 



248 



Etirope in the Nineteenth Century. 



The propa- 
ganda, 1873. 



Nihilists. Of these, Bakunin was a type. He was to 
all intents and purposes an anarchist, who desired the 
destruction of all existing institutions.* "Take heed," 
he said, "that no ark be allowed to rescue any atom of 
this old world, which we consecrate to destruction." 
By 1873 began a curious movement on the part of the 




■, -.~i 

Nicholas II. 
Born, May 18, 1868. Became tsar, November 1, 1894. 

revolutionists — a propaganda among the peasants. The 
object was to teach revolution, and so all shades of 
socialistic and anarchistic doctrines began to be dissemi- 
nated among the ignorant classes. When this came to 



* " When you have freed your minds from the fear of a God and from that 
childish respect for the fiction of right, then all the remaining chains which 
bind you, and which are called science, civilization, property, marriage, 
morality, and justice, will snap asunder like threads. Let your own happi- 
ness be your only law." 



Rzcssia. 



249 



the knowledge of the government it was put down with 
a strong hand. And the revolutionists retaliated by a 
policy of assassination directed against government 
officials — even against the tsar himself. For a short 
time Alexander tried conciliatory measures under a 
Liberal minister, Loris Melikof. He was virtually a 
dictator, and while he plainly announced that no con- 
stitution would be granted, he did make many adminis- 
trative reforms. But this course produced little real 
effect, and in the spring of 1881 the "tsar liberator" 
was assassinated by a dynamite bomb. His son, Alex- 
ander III., rejected all demands for popular govern- 
ment, and administered Russia substantially in the 
spirit of Nicholas. Until his death in 1894 Alexander 
kept from foreign war, and continued his firm control of 
domestic government. Under the young tsar, Nicho- 
las II., there is no material change of policy. There is 
a war to the death between the police and the Nihilists. 
On the one side is the despotic energy of Metternich. 
Schools and universities are rigidly guarded from any 
Liberal ideas. The press is silenced. There is no free 
speech on political subjects, and Siberia is always wait- 
ing for suspects. On the other side is a secret band of 
ruthless assassins whose aim is to kill the tsar. 

Besides the arbitrary government, another evil in 
Russia is the miserable condition of the peasants. The 
freed serfs are densely ignorant, utterly lazy, and 
passionately addicted to drink. Drunkenness is almost 
universal among them. The government tax on whisky 
is a large source of income, and so temperance societies 
are forbidden as seditious. The police have repeatedly 
broken up temperance work and forced a whisky seller 
on a reluctant village. The land allotted to the villages 
is not enough for the support even of the industrious, 



Terrorism, 

1878-81. 



Murder of the 
tsar, 1881. 



Alexander III. 



Nicholas II. 



The misery of 
the peasants. 



It is a common 
saying that " a 
sober peasant is 
one who gets 
drunk only on 
the festivals of 
the Church." 



250 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

and so swindling money-lenders have easily made the 
peasants their prey. These sharks charge sixty per 
cent, one hundred per cent, even as high as eight 
hundred per cent. And as some of them are Jews, 
Persecution of there has arisen a furious persecution of these unhappy 
people. Religious bigotry has reenforced economic 
motives, and riot has been supplemented by govern- 
ment action, so that thousands of wretched Jews have 
been stripped of their property and cast out of the 
empire. 

The nineteenth century has not yet dawned in Russia. 

SUMMARY. 

Russia includes half of Europe and a third of Asia. 

Its population of 119,000,000 comprises many races, but is 
predominantly Slav. 

The established Church of Russia is the Greek Church. It 
has no common head like the Roman pope but is national in 
its organization. The tsar is the head of the Church. There 
are many dissenting sects. 

In government Russia is an absolute monarchy — the last in 
Europe. Russia has had some liberal monarchs, one of 
whom, Alexander II., freed the serfs in 1861. But reforms 
have not gone far. The country is still centuries behind the 
rest of Europe. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE EMPIRE OF THE TURKS. 

The Turks are an anachronism in modern Europe. „„ 

r What the 

They belong in the Middle Ages, and it is a pity they Turks are. 
are not all there. 

These people are aliens to the ideas of European civ- 
ilization. 

They are aliens in race and language. They are 
Turanians, with no share of Aryan blood or Aryan 
thought. They have no inheritance in the Greek and 
Roman culture which has created modern life in the 
west. Their classic literature is in Arabic. They are 
Asiatic, not European. 

They are aliens in religion. The Mohammedan faith 
has from its inception been more hostile to Christianity 
than has any other creed. Christian missions to-day 
make practically no converts from Islam. And the 
Turks inherit a thousand years of war against the cross. 

They are aliens in social institutions. Polygamy and 
slavery, "twin relics of barbarism," are opposed to the 
instincts of advanced western life. But both thrive 
among the Turks. It is the Mohammedan natives who 
to-day keep alive the slave raids in the heart of Africa 
which Christian powers are striving to end. 

They are aliens in political ideas. Government with 
them is, as has been said of Russia, "despotism tem- 
pered by assassination. ' ' They simply have no concep- 
tion of popular sovereignty. 

They are aliens in progress. The very essence of 



252 Etirope in the Nineteenth Century. 

their institutions is changelessness. Their law book is 
the Koran — and that cannot be amended or repealed. 
Their attempts at reform are only on the surface — they 
may wear silk hats and Parisian coats, but they are 
Turks underneath. Napoleon said, " Scratch a Russian 
and you will find a Cossack under his skin." And the 
modern Turk is, in fact, a medieval survival. 

In short, the Turks in Europe are a horde of Asiatic 
adventurers encamped in the fairest lands of the Conti- 
nent, and holding the native races practically in slavery. 
It must be remembered that the Turks are only about 
one fourth the population of their European empire. 
But they are the conquerors and rulers of all the rest. 

The Turkish government is a despotic monarchy. Its 
head, the sultan, is also the khalif. That is, he is not 
only the civil autocrat of the empire, but also the head 
of the orthodox Mohammedan religion everywhere. This 
is the theory. Practically, he is usually a tool in the 
hands of a corrupt ring who exploit the land for their 
own benefit. 

The rule which such a system affords is easily inferred, 
ish rule. j t j s arbitrary, unjust, corrupt, and at times wantonly 

cruel. 
Taxation Taxation is on the simple system of squeezing from 

Muiier, 505-6. j- ne individual as much as possible. The rate imposed 
is as much as ten per cent of the produce of the soil — 
sometimes twelve per cent, or fourteen per cent. But 
the method of collection is the good old Oriental system 
of farming it to speculators, and as they must make 
their percentage ' ' it not unfrequently comes about that 
one third is levied instead of one tenth." To this 
produce tax must be added house, land, cattle, tobacco, 
and pasturage taxes. Then the Christian population are 
not admitted to the military service, and are taxed for 



Nature of Turk- 



The Empire of the Turks. 253 



the dispensation. And, moreover, any of these imposi- 
tions are liable to arbitrary increase at any moment. 

The protection of life and property is a fair gauge of 
good government. Tried by this test the Turkish gov- eity. and pr ° P " 
ernment is about as bad as anything can be. The 
evidence of a Christian is not good in a Mohammedan 
court of law, and accordingly a non-Mohammedan is at 
the mercy of his Turkish neighbors. The police are 
inefficient, at best, and at a distance of only a few miles 
from the large cities, brigandage is common. Laveleye 
mentions cases in which valuable landed estates are 
worthless because there is no safety. 

The courts are, as a rule, venal. Justice can be had 
in them — if paid for. The sagacious and incorruptible The courts - 
cadi of Oriental tales is dead long since. The weightiest 
legal argument to-day is the largest bribe. 

It is almost needless to say that public administration 
is both corrupt and ignorant. Large sums have repeat- Administration, 
edly been expended on public works without result, so 
much has been wasted and stolen. The soldiers, even, 
have often gone unpaid for months. In such case the 
officers are left to live on bribes, and the privates have 
no resource but robbery. 

Reforms have often been promised, but have never 
been carried out. They never will be. Since 1875 the 
nation has been bankrupt. Nearly all the ordinary 
revenues are pledged to pay the interest on the bonds. 
The remainder is actually less than that of little Belgium. 
And yet Turkey is a large empire with an expensive 
army, navy, and civil administration. Even if govern- 
ment were honest and efficient, the financial outlook 
would be gloomy. But when to bankruptcy are added 
chronic theft and administrative imbecility, it will be 
seen that the future is not hopeful. 



254 



Etirope in the Nineteenth Century. 



The subject 
races. 



The empire 
in 1801. 



Greeks. 



Albanians. 



Bulgarians. 



It has been said that the Turks are only a quarter of 
the people within the limits of what has been their terri- 
tory in Europe. The other three fourths are as thorough 
a mixture of races as exists in Austria-Hungary. 

When the nineteenth century opened, the Turkish 
rule extended to the present frontiers of Austria and 
Russia. Roumania, Servia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Herze- 
govina, Montenegro, Greece, all were subject to the 
sultan. 

Of the various peoples who during our century have 
been thus under Turkish dominion, the Greeks are con- 
spicuous. In the Balkan peninsula, Asia Minor, and the 
islands, these people number about eight million, of 
whom only a little more than two million are in the 
kingdom of Greece. Claiming to be descended from the 
Greeks of ancient glory, and speaking a tongue as little 
removed from that of the age of Pericles as our speech is 
from the English of the Middle Ages, yet it is more 
than likely that the modern Greeks are largely Slavonic 
in blood. Still, these foreign elements have been 
thoroughly Hellenized in language, customs, and tradi- 
tions. They as a nation belong to the orthodox Greek 
Church, to which they are devotedly attached. 

The Albanian mountaineers, a hardy race whom the 
Turks reduced with great difficulty, are probably of old 
Graeco-Italic stock, purer in blood than the Greeks. At 
least seven tenths of them are Mohammedans, the rest 
being of the Greek churches. 

The Bulgarians are Slavs, although the Bulgars, from 
whom they take their name, were a Tatar race. But 
this handful of Turanians became as completely absorbed 
in the mass of the Slavonic people as the Normans of 
England did among the Saxons. The Bulgarians are 
industrious, patient, somewhat dull, peasants. They 



The Empire of the Turks. 



255 



form the common laborers of Roumelia and Macedonia, 
besides being the bulk of the population in Bulgaria. 
They are mostly of the orthodox Greek Church. 

The people of Servia and Montenegro belong to the Servians and 
same branch of the Slavic race, which is identical with 
the south Slavic stock of the Croats in Hungary. They 
are intellectually the most brilliant of all the Slavs, 
having a most interesting national history and literature. 
Their religion is that of the orthodox Greek Church. 

The Roumanians are a different people from the Roumanians. 
others. As their name implies, they call themselves 
Romans, and their language is a Romance tongue, 
bearing the same relation to Latin as Spanish or Italian. 
It is the national claim that they are descended from 
Roman military colonists whom Trojan gave settlements 
near the Danube. The probability is that their ances- 
tors were Latinized Macedonian peasants who were 
driven north of the river by Slavic invasions. They are 
mostly adherents of the orthodox Greek Church. 

The Jews in the old Turkish limits are very numerous. 
In Roumania there are no less than three hundred thou- 
sand of them. True to their race instincts they are a 
trading class — an economical, prudent, shrewd people 
who prosper in this world's goods. 

The valley of the Danube is the home of more than 
half of the eight hundred thousand European Gypsies. 
In Roumania alone there are at least three hundred thou- 
sand of them. In that country they were long held as 
slaves, only becoming free in 1864. They are nearly as 
puzzling an element of society there as are the negroes 
in some of our southern states. 

The history of the Balkan peninsula before the con- 
quest by the Turks is long and varied. It was the seat 
of the Greek Empire, the eastern division of the great 



Jews. 



Gypsies. 



The Balkan pen- 
insula before 
the Turks. 



256 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Roman Empire which Caesar Augustus created, which 
Constantine made Christian, and which Diocletian di- 
vided. But this eastern portion, Oriental in customs 
and Greek in tongue, yet called itself always the Roman 
Empire, and its Greek speech was called Roman {Ro- 
maic). The western and strictly Latin division of the 
empire was subverted by the end of the fifth century, 
but Roman emperors continued to reign at Constanti- 
nople until the fatal year 1453. During those long 
centuries the peninsula became filled with Slav immi- 
grants, and these the Oriental Christian 
priests from the capital succeeded in con- 
verting to Christianity. It was a mission 
from the same source which carried the 
cross to the Russians. And so it came 
about that the Slavic nations are nearly all 
of the Greek faith, just as the Teutonic 
and Celtic peoples are Latin Christians. 

Before the Turkish conquest, two of 
these Slav nations founded great empires. 
The Bulgarians had filled the peninsula 
before the seventh century. In the ninth 
century they were converted to Christian- 
ity, and through their priests acquired a 
large degree of Byzantine culture. In the 
tenth century, and again in the twelfth 
century, Bulgarian kingdoms were founded, 
which waged war on equal terms with the 
emperor at Constantinople. The Bulgarian 
power was overthrown by the Turks in 
1390. And for nearly five hundred years, 
until 1878, the Bulgarians were subject to 
Mohammedan masters. 

The Servians came down from the Car- 




Bulgarian National Costume 



The Empire of the Turks. 257 

pathian Mountains in the seventh century and settled in The Ser vian 
what were then waste lands in the central part of the Em P ire - 
peninsula. They were not then a united people, but 
lived in independent groups under their princes for six 
hundred years. In 1222 these scattered bands were 
united into a single empire, under the rule of Stephen, 
the first tsar of all the Servian lands. The thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries were the heroic age of the Servians. 
They developed brilliant political and military genius, 
and a poetic literature of no mean order. Their great 
hero was the tsar Stephen Dushan, who ascended the 
throne in 1333. He subjugated Macedonia, Thessaly, 
and Epirus, and made the Bulgarians tributary. He had 
a noble scheme for the union of the whole peninsula in 
one empire, uniting Greeks, Bulgarians, and Servians 
under his rule, and in 1355 set out to subjugate Con- 
stantinople. But he died on the march and his scheme 
fell through. Could it have been carried out, the Turks 
might have been kept out of Europe. In 1389 Lazar, the 
last Servian tsar, was defeated and slain by the Turks 
at the fatal battle of Kossovo, and the Servian Empire 
was subjugated. Some few Servian fugitives took refuge 
in Austria. A few others succeeded in maintaining a 
hardy independence in the mountains of Montenegro. 
But the mass of the nation, like the Bulgarians, fell 
under the Turkish yoke and only regained their liberties 
in our own century. 

The Ottoman Turks first appear in history about the The Turks. 
year 1240. They overran the eastern Roman Empire, 
conquering Servia in 1389 and Bulgaria in 1390. Finally 
the imperial city itself yielded to their siege, and in 

. , , -,_.., FallofConstan- 

1453 Constantinople became the seat 01 lurkisn power, tinopie, 1453. 
Thus the Mohammedans gained their foothold in Europe. 
If Servians, Bulgarians, and Greeks could have united, 



258 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

the Turks could have been kept out. But national 
jealousy made this union impossible. Again, if western 
Europe had given help, the invasion might have been 
repelled. But religious hatred prevented.. And to this 
day the Turks are kept in Constantinople by the same 
fact which gave them admittance — the discord and 
jealousy of Europe. 

The Turkish Empire in Europe reached its height 
Turkey under un der Solyman the Magnificent. He ruled over all the 

Solyman. J <-> 

Balkan peninsula, and nearly all Hungary. Roumania, 
Transylvania, and the neighboring lands were tributary. 
The Turkish dominions encircled the Black Sea. Aus- 
tria was in danger. The high-water mark of Turkish 
power is Vienna, which they besieged in 1682. They 
were driven away and the city saved by the army of the 
king of Poland. And from that time the threatening 
tide of Turkish invasion began to recede. 

But in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Christen- 
dom trembled at the name of the Turks. Under 
Stephen Dushan the Servians seemed to promise as 
powerful a civilization as the Germans. That promise 
was shattered by the Turks, and for many years it 
seemed by no means sure that they would not crush 
the Teutonic powers also. 

SUMMARY. 

The Turks are aliens in race, language, religion, social 
institutions, and political ideas. 

The Turkish government is a monarchy, despotic, arbitrary, 
unjust, corrupt, and often cruel. 

Taxes are farmed to speculators who collect all they can. 

The subject races constitute three fourths the population of 
Turkey. The chief races are the Greeks, Albanians, Servians, 
Roumanians, Gypsies, and Jews. 

Before the Turkish conquest in 1453 there were strong Bul- 
garian and Servian states in the Balkans. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE EXPULSION OF THE TURKS FROM EUROPE. 

The history of eastern Europe for the last two hun- 
dred years has been the story of the gradual expulsion 
of the Turks from the continent. Their tyranny has 
been grievous, the lands they have misgoverned have 
been impoverished and miserable. But as Europe could 
never , unite to rescue these victims of Oriental oppres- 
sion, and, at the same time, as the powers have never 
been willing that any one nation alone should drive out 
the Turks and inherit their lands, the process has been 
slow and spasmodic. 

The Turks at their best estate were fitted only for Decadence of 
conquest. When their victorious march westward ceased, 
they became fond of luxury. Thereafter their soldiers 
fought only for plunder. The sultans were no longer 
virile warriors, but were mere effeminate dawdlers in the 
harem. And all authority, civil and military, was re- 
laxed. With this growing feebleness of the empire, in- 
surrections became bolder, foreign attacks more formid- 
able and successful, until the mighty dominions of 
Solyman have crumbled to their present narrow bounds. 

After the siege of Vienna, the Germans and Hunga- 
rians continued to push back the invaders until, in 1699, from Germany 
Hungary was cleared of the Asiatic hordes, and a treaty „ 

& J , ' J Treaty of Car- 

extorted from the sultan which recognized Hungarian lowitz, 1699. 

independence. This was the first treaty the Turks had 

deigned to make with a Christian power. 

The rescue of the southern extremity of the great 

259 



26o 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Independence 
of Greece, 
1821-30. 



Timavenis, II. 
348. 



peninsula dates from the third decade of the present 
century. Those fair lands, the home of Greek literature 
and art to which our modern world owes so much, had 
for centuries been ground under a relentless and capri- 
cious despotism. The unfortunate Christians found that 
there was no law for them. The sons were taken 
from them for the Turkish army, a real ' ' tribute of 
blood, ' ' their property and lives were at the mercy of 

brutal governors. 
"Neither the 
complete submis- 
sion of the van- 
quished, n^r the 
payment of taxes 
or of the ' tribute 
of blood,' satiated 
the savage cru- 
elty of the Turks, 
s and 
bishops of the 
Church were 
hanged like the 
worst of malefac- 
tors in Constan- 
tinople; hundreds 
of Christians were butchered in the churches of Smyrna, 
hundreds of patriots were roasted to death in Attica, 
Eubcea, and elsewhere. No family was safe; no woman 
dared appear in the streets; nobody's life was secure, 
because a Turk was promoted in proportion to the 
Christians he could claim for his victims." 

During the eighteenth century there had been a re- 
nascence among the Greeks of their ancient language, 
and circumstances had favored their merchants in the 




MODERN 
GREECE 



The Expulsion of the Turks from Europe. 261 

Levant with great prosperity. The revolutionary and 
Napoleonic wars in western Europe cut off traffic with 
eastern ports and left the carrying trade to the enter- 
prising sailors of the Greek islands. At the same time 
the rigor of Turkish tyranny was relaxed. 

But with renewed intelligence and prosperity there 
came an awakening of national consciousness, and there 
was earnest hope that in the general settlement at 
Vienna something might be done for the Greeks. 
When this hope proved groundless, a swarm of secret 
political societies sprang into existence in all the lands 
where Greeks lived, and in 1821 they began insurrec- 
tion. The first attempt was made in the provinces 
north of the Danube, Moldavia and Wallachia (the 
present kingdom of Roumania). This rising was easily 
crushed, but almost immediately revolt sprang up in 
the Morea and spread to the mainland on the north. 
The Turks were massacred everywhere, men, women, Massacre of 
and children being slaughtered. The sultan attacked 
the insurgents with troops and his fleet, but the year 
1822 was signalized by victories for the patriots both on 
land and sea. The war dragged for years, being 
marked on each side by horrible atrocities. The Greeks 
were quite as brutal as the Turks, and whenever the 
pressure of invasion was relaxed, they at once fell to 
quarreling among themselves. At last the sultan, de- 
spairing of success alone, called on his vassal, Mehemet 
Ali, the semi-independent ruler of Egypt, for help. 
Mehemet sent his son Ibrahim with a fleet and army, 
and the Greek peninsula was overrun by the Egyptians, 
and fire and slaughter followed. Now at length the 
great powers intervened, and in 1827 England, France, 
and Russia called on the belligerents to cease hostilities. 
The Turks refused to obey, and thereupon the allied 



Mehemet Ali. 



262 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Battle of 
Navarino, Oct. 

20, 1827. 



183O-2. 



Annexations. 



fleets attacked the fleet of Ibrahim in the harbor of 
Navarino and utterly destroyed it. This ended the 
war in Greece. Ibrahim soon afterwards, being threat- 
ened by a French army, withdrew to Egypt, and hos- 
tilities in the peninsula ceased. In the following year, 
Russia declared war against Turkey on other grounds, 
and a Russian army nearly reached Constantinople. 

Meanwhile the anarchy of the Greek government led 
to such confusion that in 1827 an outsider was called on 
to take the executive power. Count Capodistrias, a 
Greek who had been in the Russian service, was elected 
president. He was an able administrator and a tried 
patriot, but so inveterate were the local dissensions in 
Greece that he proved unable to cope with them, and in 
1 83 1 he was murdered. 

In the final settlement it was agreed that Greece 
should be independent, although its limits were made as 
narrow as possible, and Prince Otho of Bavaria was 
chosen king. Leopold, afterwards king of Belgium, 
had declined the crown, feeling that the territory was 
far too small for success. 

Otho was not very well fitted to administer the 
turbulent and poor young kingdom, and in 1862 a 
revolution drove him from the throne. Prince George 
of Denmark took his place in the following year. 

The slender boundaries of 1830 have been somewhat 
extended since. In 1864 England ceded the Ionian 
Islands, a rare instance of national generosity. The 
rearrangements which followed the Russo-Turkish War 
of 1877-78 gave Thessaly and part of Epirus to their 
southern neighbor. But the Greeks do not feel that 
their destiny is fulfilled as long as there is a Turk in 
Europe. Epirus and Macedonia are naturally Greek, and 
Constantinople itself is the dream of many Greek patriots. 



The Expulsion of the Turks from Europe. 263 



The little kingdom is very poor, and is cursed by an 
excess of politics. It is free from Turkish misrule. But 
whether it can prosper in sober self-government remains 
to be seen. 

The Slav subjects of the sultan have won their free- The siav 
dom by a series of efforts extending over many years. 

The little principality of Montenegro ( ' ' Tzernagora, ' ' Montenegro. 
the Black Mountain) is only one hundred miles long by 
eighty miles wide. It is a cluster of rugged mountains 
in whose inaccessible fastnesses a remnant of the old 
Servian Empire of Stephen Dushan has practically main- 
tained its independence to the present day. The Turks 
for a time compelled the mountaineers to pay tribute, 
but in 1703 they revolted, and since then have been 
quite free. In 1858 the sultan made another attempt to 
subdue them. But at the battle of Grahovo, in the 
mountain passes, the Turkish army was cut to pieces, 
losing seven thousand killed to only forty-seven of the 
Montenegrins. This ended any serious attempt at in- 
vasion. 

The freedom of Roumania has been won by the 
events of nearly a century. In 1774 Russia ended Roumama - 
a six years' war with Turkey, among other things 
making some stipulations for the security of the peo- 
ple of Roumania. They were to be ruled by their 
own hospodars (governors), and no Turkish garrisons 
were to be north of the Danube. In 1829 another 
Russo-Turkish war was closed by the treaty of Adrian- 
ople, and by its terms Roumania was made a Russian 
protectorate. The Peace of Paris in 1856 marked Rus- 
sian defeat in place of victory. Roumania was left auton- 
omous under Turkish suzerainty; but the Russian pro- 
tectorate was ended, and, to prevent the formation of 
an independent kingdom, the country was separated into 



264 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



1830. 



Bulgaria. 



the two provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia. This 
artificial separation irritated the Roumanians, and in 
1859 they rebelled against it. Their national union was 
successful, and in 1866 they chose as their king Prince 
Charles of Hohenzollern, distantly related to the Prus- 
sian royal house. Under his wise constitutional rule the 
little kingdom has steadily prospered. 

The freedom of Servia was the fruit of the courage of 
the Servian people. They hoped for help from Austria 
and from Russia, but in vain. At last, in 1807, under a 
brave peasant, Kara George (Black George), the Ser- 
vians rebelled. For four years they fought gallantly, 
but the movement failed. In 1815 the revolt again 
broke out, this time led by another peasant, Milosch, 
and after nearly fifteen years of war the Turks recog- 
nized Servia as virtually an independent state. Tribute 
was to be paid to the sultan, and Turkish garrisons were 
maintained in certain fortresses. After this treaty Servia 
was at peace, except for internal quarrels. The prince 
was a member of the family of Kara George or Milosch, 
a series of revolutions putting one or the other on the 
throne. In 1867 the Turkish garrisons were driven out, 
and two years later a liberal constitution was adopted. 

Bulgaria lay in the heart of the Turkish Empire, and 
its people were the most patient and inoffensive of all 
the subject races. They suffered in silence until 1876. 
In that year the Slavs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, irri- 
tated beyond endurance by Turkish misrule, rose against 
their oppressors. This movement precipitated a feeble in- 
surrection among the Bulgarians. It was easily quelled, 
but the revenge of the Turks was frightful. A horde of 
bashi-bazouks (irregular cavalry) was let loose on the 
simple peasant folk. Murder and outrage ran riot. 
Men, women, and children were slaughtered in cold 



The Expulsion of the Turks from Europe. 265 



blood by thousands, and nameless infamies were 
wrought in every village. The leaders in these atroci- 
ties were rewarded by the Turkish government. But 
the indignation of the civilized world blazed hotly when 
the truth was known. Servia and Montenegro at once 
declared war, and the next year Russia came to their 1877- 
aid. At the end of two campaigns Bulgaria was wrung 
from Turkey and was made a free land. 

Russia, almost from the beginning of its national ex- . 

The Russian 

istence, has been the enemy of Turkey. One reason advance, 
has been geographical. Russia has had to strive for an 
outlet on the sea. And Turkey on the south held 
all the Black Sea littoral, and still holds the only outlet 
from that sea. Another reason has been that of race. 
Russia, as the great Slav power, has felt like guarding 
the interests of the numerous Slavic peoples whom the 
sultan held in subjection. Another more powerful rea- 
son is the religious question. Russia holds to the 
orthodox Greek Church, and sympathizes keenly with 
brethren of that faith who are held under the Turkish 
yoke. And then the strategic position of Constantinople 
has been a powerful attraction to the land-locked em- 
pire of the tsars. 

For all these reasons the relation of Russia and Tur- 
key for a hundred years has been that of frequent war. 
Nearly every province which has shaken off the rule of 
the sultan has had the aid of the tsar. And not a few 
of those provinces are now a part of Russia. 

The first advance was made in the war of 1768-74. Treat of _ 
The Tatars north of the Black Sea became independent 
of the sultan. Russia acquired an outlet on the Black 
Sea, pushing the Turkish frontier back to the river 
Bug. And the Roumanian principalities were taken 
under Russian protectorate. And at the same time the 



266 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Treaty of 1792. 



Treaty of 1812. 



Treaty of 1S29. 



sultan bound himself ' ' to protect the Christian religion 
and its churches." 

At the end of the next war, in 1792, the Turkish 
frontier was pushed back again, this time to the river 
Dniester. And in 1S12 it receded to the Pruth. 

When the Greek revolt had given evidence of its 
vigor and determination, and the Turks by their horrible 
massacres had made Europe shudder, the people of 
Russia were eager for war on Turkey. But Alexander 
I. was committed to the policy of Metternich, and so 
he could regard his co-religionists in Greece only as 
rebels. But Nicholas took a different view. He was 
not bound to Metternich and cared nothing for what 
went on in western Europe. He readily joined with 
France and England to stop the subjugation of Greece 
by Ibrahim Pasha, in 1827. And when the allies of 
Nicholas would go no further, in the next year he made 
war on Turkey alone. The summer of 1829 saw the 
Russian army at Adrianople, and the tsar was able 
to make a successful peace. His protectorate over 
Moldavia and Wallachia was confirmed and extended. 
Turkish garrisons, fortresses, and even private subjects, 
were excluded from the left bank of the Danube. The 
waters connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterranean 
were open to the commerce of all nations at peace with 
the Porte. No annexations of territory were made by 
Russia, but a money indemnity was given by Turkey. 

In the course of these transactions with the Porte, the 
tsar had come to regard himself as holding a sort of 
relation of guardianship to the Greek Christians in 
general, and the Slavs in particular, who lived in the 
Turkish Empire. And under such circumstances it was 
not easy to continue long on good terms with a neighbor 
of such quality as the sultan. A dispute between the 



The Expulsion of the Turks from Europe. 267 

Greek and the Latin monks who had the care of the 1852-3, 
holy places at Jerusalem was easily fanned into an inter- 
national quarrel. The tsar made demands which the 
sultan refused. The latter was supported by France 
and England, and in 1854 war was formally declared, war, X \^-t. 
It was the aim of the allies to put an end to Russian 
encroachment. At vast cost of life and treasure the 
great arsenal of Sevastopol was destroyed. Russia was 
defeated, and the tsar signed a treaty of peace which 
renounced the protectorate over Wallachia and Mol- Treaty of 1856. 
davia, gave up a strip of Bessarabia and the mouth of 
the Danube, and neutralized the Black Sea as against 
the war ships of all nations. Sevastopol was perma- 
nently dismantled and Russia agreed not to establish a 
naval arsenal anywhere on its coasts. 

This was a decided check of the Russian advance, and 
was forced on that nation by a threat of a combination of 
the other great powers with the allies, and by the fact 
that the war had already shattered Russian resources. 

SUMMARY. 

For two hundred years the Turkish power in Europe has 
been declining. 

By the treaty of Carlowitz (1699) Turkey recognized the 
independence of Hungary. 

After a struggle lasting from 1821 to 1833, Greece became 
an independent kingdom. 

Several Slav states are almost independent — Montenegro 
since 1703, Roumania since 1856, Servia since 1830, Bulgaria 
since 1877. 

Russia has steadily advanced southward, urged on by the 
need of a seaport, and by religious and racial considerations. 

By her first advance (1774), Russia acquired a foothold on 
the Black Sea. In 1792 Russia advanced to the Dniester and 
in 1812 receded to the Pruth. 

In the Crimean War France and England interfered to pre- 
vent Russian aggression on Turkey. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 

There has long been a report current that Peter the 
of Peter fhe w ' Great at his death impressed it on his heirs that it was 
their duty to dismember the Ottoman Empire and to 
secure Constantinople. Whether this report is or is not 
well founded cannot easily be determined. But it cer- 
tainly has been traditional Russian policy to seek terri- 
torial aggrandizement at the expense of the sultan. 
The Tatars north of the Black Sea were for many years 
tributary to Turkey. Since 1774 they have been sub- 
jects of the tsar. Before that year the Euxine was a 
Turkish lake. Now the tsar owns as much of its littoral 
as does the sultan. And the Russian advance has 
followed the Asiatic shore as well as the European. The 
province of Transcaucasia, conquered in the present 
century, brings the Russian arms within striking distance 
of Armenia and Asia Minor. 

An ever present source of discord between Russia and 
OuesUon 8i ° US Turkey has been the condition of the Christian subjects 
of the Porte. Nearly all of them are of the Oriental 
Church, and Russia is the only great power of that faith. 
Naturally, then, the great eastern Christian monarchy 
has felt that it is the logical successor of the Greek 
Empire, much as, until the opening years of our own 
century, the Holy Roman Empire claimed to be the 
veritable Roman Empire of the west. And so the 
Russians have felt a strong sympathy for their co- 
religionists who were under the Mohammedan yoke, and 



The Eastern Question. 



269 



when, in 1821, Sultan Mahmud hanged the patriarch of 
Constantinople in his sacred robes on Easter Sunday, 
the Russian people were thrilled with a horror and rage, 
deeper than the mere barbarity of the act aroused in 
western Europe. War against Turkey has been with 




the Russians a holy crusade, such as through many cen- 
turies the Spaniard waged against the Moor. 

For another reason the Turkish Empire has been an 
element of unrest in Europe. It has long been plain to 



270 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



all that it is not permanent. It has taken no root. The 
Turks are merely encamped in Europe; and it is merely 
a question of time when the last of them must return 
across the Bosphorus. 

As soon as this idea was realized by the western 
nations, in place of the dread of the Turk which had so 
long- been part and parcel of European thinking, the 
question of the disposal to be made of the Turkish 
possessions became matter of live interest. And this is 
the Eastern Question. 

The Greek Empire vanished forever when the last 
Constantine fell in 1453. The only problem is one of 
partition. And the heart of it all is the disposal to be 
made of Constantinople. That imperial city has a site 
that, in strong hands, means power and wealth. What 
shall become of it ? 

Russia early formed designs of conquest, whatever 
may be the truth about Peter's will. The Empress 
Catherine added to her domains at the expense of 
Turkey, and she had a grand scheme for a restoration of 
the Greek Empire under a Russian prince. Alexander 
I. , at Tilsit, planned a partition of the Ottoman Empire 
with Napoleon, but the latter declined to see Constan- 
tinople in Russian hands. "Constantinople," said he, 
"is the empire of the world." In 1844 Nicholas visited 
England and made guarded suggestions to the prime 
minister about the Turkish lands. The Ottoman Empire, 
he said, was a sick man, nearly at the last extremity. 
He must be kept alive as long as possible, but it was 
wise to take in view, frankly, all contingencies. Eng- 
land declined to plan for a share of the inheritance, and 
nothing was done. In 1853 Nicholas resumed the sub- 
ject with the British ambassador at St. Petersburg. The 
sick man, he now held, was at the point of death. It 



The Eastern Question. 271 

would be well if all the states north of the Balkans 
should, like Moldavia and Wallachia, be made inde- 
pendent, under a Russian protectorate. England 
might annex Egypt and Crete. But again England de- 
clined and, indeed, the next year went to war with 
Russia to save the sick man from a premature end at the 
hands of the would-be administrator of the estate. 

Another power deeply interested in the future of the 
Turkish dominions is Austria. That empire has been the A ^ strian inter - 
traditional enemy of the Turk, and at the end of the 
seventeenth century was the actual bulwark of Europe 
against Mohammedan conquest. When the tide of war 
rolled the other way, Austria was ready to share in the 
spoils. Twice, near the end of the eighteenth century, 
was an alliance made between Russia and Austria for the 
partition of Turkey; and if the plans of Tilsit had been 
carried out, Austria stood ready to lend a hand and to 
claim a share. 

Of course it would be a grave danger to Austria-Hun- 
gary to have a great power possess the lands on her 
southern border. Again, the Austrian Slavs are natur- 
ally in sympathy with their brethren in the Balkan penin- 
sula. And in the general break-up, Austria may well 
expect an extension of frontiers — perhaps so far as to 
have an outlet on the JEgean. 

England has both a financial and a political interest in 

, „ . . . .,.,.. English infer- 

tile east, lurkey has been very generous in effecting ests. 

loans, and the bonds are largely held in England. And 
the large English possessions in India make the route to 
that dependency matter of vital moment. So long as 
the path of Da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope 
was followed, the eastern Mediterranean was of less im- 
portance. But in 1869 the Suez ship canal was com- 
pleted, which diverted commerce to the ancient track. 



272 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Revolt in Her- 
zegovina, 1875. 



Ante, p. 269. 
Muller, 516-7. 



Since then England has been keenly alive to the danger 
of allowing a possible hostile power to get a footing near 
the route to India. 

The stipulations of the peace of 1856 prevented Rus- 
sia from forming a naval force on the Black Sea. This 
prohibition lasted until other combinations among the 
powers made it possible to throw off the yoke of the 
treaty. In 1870 France and Germany were grappling 
in a death struggle. Russia promptly seized the occa- 
sion, and announced that she would no longer be bound 
by the treaty of 1856. Germany was quite willing to 
assent on condition of Russian neutrality. Austria had 
been crushed in 1866 and so was in no condition to in- 
terfere. France was disabled. England was not pre- 
pared alone to go to war with Russia, and in any event 
was handicapped by an unsettled dispute with another 
nation. During the American war between the states, 
1861-65, southern cruisers were built and equipped in 
English ports and allowed to go to sea and destroy 
American shipping. This plain infraction of interna- 
tional law had so enraged the Americans that they would 
have welcomed a war between England and Russia as a 
convenient occasion for reprisal. England hastened to 
settle this American question by a treaty which led to 
the payment of fifteen million five hundred thousand 
dollars damages. But meanwhile Sevastopol was once 
more an arsenal and again a Russian fleet floated on 
the Black Sea. 

In 1875 the Christians in Herzegovina revolted against 
the Moslem tyrant. The disturbance spread to Bosnia, 
and in the following year there was a feeble revolt in 
Bulgaria. This was put down at once, and was avenged 
with remorseless brutality. At least twelve thousand of 
the hapless people were slaughtered in cold blood by the 



The Eastern Question. 273 

savage bashi-bazouks who were turned loose among the 
villages. At this Servia and Montenegro declared war 
against Turkey. The little principalities were no match 
for their stronger adversary, and were thoroughly de- 
feated. Only a peremptory demand of Russia saved 
Servia from complete conquest. Then the diplomats of 
Europe took up the business and tried to bring the 
sultan to some arrangement which would insure good 
government for his Christian subjects. But everything 
failed. The Porte would consent to nothing. And in R USS0 . T urkish 
the spring of 1877 Russia declared war. war, 1877-8. 

The Turks fought with valor and skill, and held back 
their enemies from the passage of the Balkans until 
winter. But then nothing could stop the Russians. 
Army after army of the Turks surrendered. Gallant 
General Gourko, who had seized and held the Shipka 
Pass, now crossed into the plains. The Russian bayo- 
nets were in sight from the minarets of Constantinople. 
Then the Porte yielded. Although an English fleet lay 
in the Sea of Marmora ready to protect the capital, still 
the Turkish Empire was overthrown, and had to agree to 
the terms of the conqueror. 

The treaty between Russia and Turkey was signed at Treat of San 

the little village of San Stefano, on the Sea of Marmora. Sie [ a 1°' March 
. 3. 1078. 

The sultan recognized the independence of Servia, 
Montenegro, and Roumania, and ceded territory to the 
two former. Bulgaria was constituted a self-governing 
tributary principality, with a Christian governor chosen 
by the people and confirmed by the Porte, with approval 
of the great powers. The borders were drawn so as to 
include a large territory. And while the new system of 
government was in preparation, Bulgaria was to be occu- 
pied by a Russian army. Reforms were also guaran- 
teed in all the remaining dominions of the Porte. Land 



Fyffe, III., 510. 



274 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



near the mouth of the Danube, and land on the Asiatic 
shore of the Black Sea, were ceded to Russia. Also 
there was to be a money indemnity. 

The English prime minister, Beaconsfield, looked on 




While Beacons- these provisions as insuring a dangerous Russian prepon- 
mi'niste^inis?? 6 derance in the Balkan peninsula. He vigorously insisted 
was e given to the ^at ^ e wno ^ e treaty should be revised by a general 
Empress'of in- European Congress. For a time war between Russia 
and England seemed impending. And Austria was also 
discontented. The Congress finally met at Berlin in the 
summer, and succeeded in making a treaty which was 



Empres 
dia. 



The Eastern Question . 



275 



accepted. Bulgaria was confined to the land between Treaty of Ber- 
the Balkans and the Danube. A portion of the pro- ^^ Xy I3, 
posed Bulgaria south of the Balkans was to be organ- 
ized as Eastern Roumelia, under the government of the 
sultan but with admin- 
istrative autonomy. 
And Macedonia, 
which had been in- 
cluded in the Greater 
Bulgaria of San Ste- 
fano, was retained by 
the sultan. Bosnia 
and Herzegovina 
were handed over to 
Austria. And sundry 
other cessions of ter- 
ritory were lessened. 
The Porte was ad- 
vised to cedeThessaly 
and part of Epirus to 
Greece — which was 
done in 1 88 1 . Mean- 
while England made 
a convention with 
Turkey by which the 
former power ac- 
quired Cyprus, on 

condition of giving aid in preventing any further Russian 
conquests in Asiatic Turkey. 

English jealousy of Russia thus severed Bulgaria, 
which was one in race and sympathy, and at the same 
time left under the Turkish yoke the Christians of 
Macedonia. The latter provision was simply a calamity 
for the unfortunate Macedonians. The reforms promised 




Beaconsfield. 



Leader 



Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. 
of Conservative party. Born, 1805, of Jewish 
parentage. Author of "Vivian Grey" (1826) 
and other novels. Tory member of Parlia- 
ment, 1837. First speech a failure. Chan- 
cellor of Exchequer, 1852, 1858-9, 1866. Man- 
aged Conservative reform bill of 1867. Prime 
minister, 1868, 1874. Raised to peerage, 1876. 
Died, 1881. 



276 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Bulgarian 
union, 1885. 



1S85. 



by Turkey, of course, were not carried out, and Turk- 
ish misgovernment yet prevails. As to Eastern Rou- 
melia, a revolution in 1885 threw off the authority of 
the sultan, and the province was at once annexed to 
Bulgaria. 

This aroused the jealousy of Servia, which made a 
foolish war on Bulgaria. The latter country was com- 
pletely victorious, 
and only the inter- 
position of Austria 
kept the Bulgarian 
army from entering 
Belgrade. 

Bulgaria was or- 
ganized as a consti- 
tutional principality 
tributary to Turkey. 
Its legislature is 
elected by universal 
suffrage. The first 
prince chosen was 
Alexander of Batten- 
berg, who showed 
himself loyal to his 
people and, in the 
Servian war, a gal- 
lant and a skilful 
But ever 
since the war of 
1877-8, Russian in- 
trigue has been busy in the peninsula. The liberators 
thought it a grievance that the liberated Slav states were 
not docile to Russian influence. On the other hand the 
democratic Slavs, who had now won liberty and self- 




VlCTORIA. 

Victoria Alexandrina, Queen of Great Britain and crjlflipr 
Ireland and Empress of India. Born, 1819. &ululcx • 
Succeeded her uncle, William IV., 1837. Mar- 
ried to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 



The Eastern Question. 277 

government, had no notion of becoming in any way 

dependent on the autocratic tsar. And in 1886 it came 

about that Prince Alexander was forced to abdicate be- Alexander abdi- 
cates, 1886. 

cause he would not yield to Russian ideas. The nation 

as a whole, however, was decidedly anti-Russian, and in 

1887, without consulting the tsar or the other powers, 

Bulgaria elected Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, a grandson 

of Louis Philippe, to the throne. He accepted the 

crown, although by the treaty of Berlin the assent of the chosen prince. 

signatory powers was necessary. That assent was not 

given, but on the other hand, no nation was quite ready 

to interfere. War in the Balkans, once begun, would 

end nobody knows where and when. 

Servia and Roumania are governed under a constitu- 
tion quite similar to that of Bulgaria. In all these states, Constitutions. 
as well as in Greece, there is a legislature of a single 
house, chosen by universal suffrage, and the crown 
administers government by a responsible ministry, after 
the English fashion. The mountaineers of Montenegro 
are less democratic, their patriarchal prince being prac- 
tically autocratic. Servia and Roumania have given 
their princes the higher dignity of king. The Balkan 
states are alike in being thoroughly democratic in their 
social life. Long subjection to the Turk has crushed ditions. 
out inequalities. There are no great fortunes. There 
is much shrewdness and not much knowledge. The 
governments are all trying to introduce the civilization 
of western Europe — and that means free schools and 
railroads and national debt. 

Education is nominally compulsory. There is an ex- 
tensive system of common schools, with ambitious uni- 
versities in the capitals. Some improvement is visible. 
In Servia, in 1874, only four per cent of the people 
could read and write. Ten years later this proportion 



278 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

had risen to ten per cent. Liberty has brought order 
and safety for life and property. Agriculture, manu- 
factures, and commerce, have greatly increased. With 
the projects for internal improvements, however, and 
the organization of expensive national governments, 
have come loans, and these have increased to dangerous 
proportions. 

When the Greek kingdom was formed by the agree- 
ment of the powers in 1830, its territory was jealously 
limited. On the north Thessaly and Epirus were shorn 
from the claims of the Greeks — a deprivation which the 
Hellenes always felt to be a grievous wrong, and which 
was righted, and but partially at that, not until 1878, 
in the treaty of Berlin. On the south the island of 
Crete was left under the sultan. 

Crete, an island of about the shape of Cuba, though 
Crete. much smaller, lies only sixty miles from the mainland 

of Greece. The bulk of the population are Greek in 
blood and in religion, and shared to the full in the re- 
sentment of their compatriots on the mainland against 
Turkish tyranny. Hence when the Greek revolution 
broke out in 1821, the Cretans joined in the rising, and 
succeeded in driving the Turks to take refuge in the 
coast towns. But when the great powers settled mat- 
ters, as they did in 1830, Crete was not made a part of 
Greece, as should have been done, but by way of com- 
promise it was taken from the sultan and given to 
Mehemet Ali, the semi-independent ruler of Egypt. 
The condition of the island was somewhat more toler- 
able under Egyptian government than it had been under 
that of Turkey. In 1840, however, there was another 
rearrangement of eastern affairs, and the powers now 
had Crete given back to the Turks. This was not at all 
to the liking of the Cretans, and they have repeatedly 





George I. 
Born at Copenhagen, December 24, 1845. Elected king of the Hellenes, March 30, 1S63. 



28o 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Insurrection 

of 1897. 



Possible so- 
lutions of the 
Eastern Ques- 
tion. 



Russian domi- 
nance. 



Austrian domi- 
nance. 



revolted, the insurrection of 1866 having wrested from 
the sultan a decided reform. But now they are again 
in revolt. Their aim is to win independence from 
Turkey and to be annexed to Greece. Naturally the 
latter kingdom sympathizes with this effort, and has 
sought the help of the great powers in securing it. But 
the powers dread a disturbance of the status quo in the 
east, not at all knowing how far the slightest commotion 
may lead. For this reason they have refused to sup- 
port the Greeks in their Cretan policy. In February, 
1897, the Greek government sent an armed force to aid 
the Cretan insurrection. The powers resented this, and 
in turn sent a combined squadron to Crete, with orders 
to prevent further hostilities. Then Greece, against the 
advice of the governments, and apparently possessed by 
a national frenzy, went to war with Turkey. The cam- 
paign lasted only a month. The Greeks were out- 
numbered, out-generaled, out-fought, and routed. The 
Turks overran Thessaly, and perhaps might have con- 
quered all Greece. But at this point the powers inter- 
vened, and under their influence peace was made. The 
victors retired from Thessaly and the vanquished had to 
pay a heavy indemnity. 

There are several possible solutions of the Eastern 
Question. 

If Russia could repeat the campaign of 1877-8 un- 
hindered by the western powers, the tsar would doubt- 
less replace the sultan at Constantinople, and Russian 
influence would be dominant in the peninsula. But 
this will hardly be permitted. 

On the other hand, the Austrian Empire, already a 
conglomerate of nations, might include all the Balkans, 
as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. Those provinces 
have benefited greatly from the enlightened government 



The Eastern Question. 281 

which Austria has introduced. But the Germans and 
Hungarians in the dual monarchy would object to any 
further extension of Slav power. And it is not likely 
that the other powers would consent to see Austria at 
the Bosphorus. 

The process now begun may be completed, and a 
cluster of small independent states may replace the once states?" 
wide empire of the Ottoman in Europe. The question 
then would be as to the division of the territory yet 
remaining to the sultan. Greece claims a large slice of 
Albania and Macedonia. Bulgaria, on the contrary, 
insists that the people of Macedonia are mostly Bulgars, 
and that the Greater Bulgaria of San Stefano ought to 
be realized. Austria would like at least to extend to 
Salonika, so as to have an outlet on the ^Egean. 

A much stronger and more stable state would be 
formed by a federation of all the independent lands in federation, 
the peninsula. There would thus be a free and demo- 
cratic Slav nation in the south as a balance for the great 
Slav despotism of the north. And the little Greek 
kingdom certainly ought to have a larger area and to 
include more Greeks. 

Such a federation would be dangerous to Austria, as 
it would exert a strong attraction on the Slav elements 
in that monarchy. But the Turk cannot stay in Europe 
much longer. Civilization must rule these fair lands 
in some form. And anything is better than Turkish 
misrule. 

SUMMARY. 

A chief source of discord between Russia and Turkey has 
been the condition of Christians in Turkey. Russians regard 
war with Turkey as a holy crusade. 

It is apparent that the Turks must leave Europe, and the 



282 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



disposition of their territories constitutes the Eastern Ques- 
tion. 

Russia has long desired to acquire Constantinople. 

Austrian Slavs sympathize with their brethren in the Balkans, 
and Austria could not allow any great power to possess the 
lands on her southern border. 

English citizens hold many Turkish bonds, and the control 
of Constantinople by a strong power would endanger Eng- 
land's trade route to India. 

During the Franco-Prussian War, Russia absolved herself 
from the treaty of 1856. 

The treaty of San Stefano (1878) gave Russia such pre- 
ponderance in the Balkans that a European congress met at 
Berlin to settle the points at issue. 

The Eastern Question may be solved by Russian domi- 
nance, by Austrian dominance, by a system of independent 
states, or by a Balkan federation. 




A Modern War Cruiser. 



PART VI.-THE MINOR POWERS. 



PRELIMINARY. 

In the Middle Ages, Europe was broken up into a 
great number of small states. The change to modern Medieval states 

° ° many and 

life consisted, for one thing, in fusing a number of these small, 
into a single nation. In that way France was formed, 
for example. And in our own century the union of 
Germany and of Italy are illustrations of the same 
process on a large scale. 

But there are still a few states which remain small in 
area and population as survivals from medieval condi- 

1 \ , Some surviv- 

tions. The tiny republics of Andorra and San Marino, ais. 
and the duchy of Luxemburg, are among the smallest of 
these. Switzerland, Holland, and Belgium are them- 
selves little clusters of what were Middle Age units, 
but which, owing to a variety of circumstances, never 
became absorbed in the large nations. 

Spain and Portugal were once powers of no mean 
rank. But their energies were exhausted before our age Decayed states, 
opened, and they are now quite at one side from the 
currents of European life. And at the other extremity 
of the continent are the Scandinavians. Although cen- 
turies ago the sea kings roved along all the coasts, and The Northmen ' 
founded permanent settlements and royal dynasties in 
France and Britain and Sicily, in our day they, too, 
have been so far at one side as to have little share in the 
great events which absorb the attention of the world. 
But for all that these minor powers are well worth study. 



283 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



THE SMALL CENTRAL STATES. 



Switzerland. 



In the summer of 1291, three Alpine valleys, Uri, 
Schwyz, and Unterwalden, formed a league to resist the 
tyranny of the bailiffs who, in the name of their noble 
masters, oppressed the mountaineers. This was the 
germ of the Swiss confederacy. At first there was no 
thought of independence. But as other communities 
joined the confederates, the tie of allegiance to the Ger- 
man emperor became weaker, and at the end of the 
Thirty Years' War, in 1648, the confederated cantons 
found themselves free. 

These early years of Switzerland are the theme of 
romantic and heroic story without end. Here belongs 

the tale of Wil- 







liam Tell and the 
apple — a legend 
which, like that of 
George Washing- 
ton and the 
cherry tree, we 
mustplace among 
those fondly be- 
lieved fictions 

which modern science relegates to poets and ballad 

mongers. 

The confederation grew slowly by the addition of 

neighboring cantons, until in 1798 there were thirteen — 

the same number (unlucky as some would think it) 

284 



The Small Central States. 285 

with which the United States began. These cantons 
were quite independent of one another, their union being 
merely an alliance. The confederate Diet was thus 
merely a meeting of ambassadors, having no power to 
act. Beside the thirteen allied cantons there was a group 
of associated and protected territories subject to one or 
more of the cantons. 

In 1798 the French, eager to propagate their own successive con- 
liberty, fraternity, and equality, overturned the confed- stltutIons - 
eration and set up the ' ' Helvetic Republic, one and in- 
divisible, ' ' patterned exactly after the French republic. 
In 1803 Napoleon again altered the form of governments 
to correspond with his reorganization of France. By 
adding some of the associated states the thirteen cantons 
now became nineteen. And in 181 5 the allies, at the 
Congress of Vienna, added three more, making the 
present number twenty-two. The federal compact, 
drawn up by the Swiss Diet at Zurich, was accepted by 
the Congress, and the powers now guaranteed the neu- 
trality of the Swiss territory. This constitution was that 
of a loose confederation, much like that of our own 
United States between 1781 and 1789. Each had the 
same great defect — a lack of power in the central gov- 
ernment. 

The influence of aristocratic classes was supreme at this 

1 The democratic 

time. And one form of Swiss constitutional growth until revolt. 
1848 has been the advance of democratic ideas. The 
struggle broke out in 1830, and in the next two decades 
the cantons successively modified their constitutions in a 
democratic sense, some peaceably, some by revolution. 
But in the end, civil and political rights were secured to 
all citizens equally. The sovereignty of the people was 
fully established. 

The other element of discord in the confederacy was 



286 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

The religious the question of religion. Some cantons were Protestant, 

war ' and others were Roman Catholic. In 1841 the former 

attacked the monasteries, and a civil war resulted, in 

which the Catholics were beaten. Seven cantons of that 

faith then united for mutual support, and this led to 

The Sonder- tne c ^ vl ^ war °f the Sonderbund (separate league) in 

bund - J847. The Catholic league was overthrown. And it 

was then determined to form a new constitution which 

should prevent such confusion. 

The constitution of 1848, amended in 1874, was 
f 8 °g^ titution of patterned after that of our country. Switzerland, like 
the United States, is a federal republic. Each canton, 
like the states of our Union, has its own government. 
The federal legislature has two houses. The Council of 
States, like our Senate, has two members from each 
canton. The National Council represents the people, like 
our House of Representatives. The executive, unlike 
ours, is plural. It consists of a board of seven mem- 
bers, elected for three years by the legislature, the two 
houses sitting in joint session. These seven form the 
cabinet, each being at the head of a department, and 
one of them designated by the legislature as the president, 
is in fact only the chairman of this cabinet. So there is 
no president of Switzerland, in our sense. 

One peculiar feature of Swiss legislation is the refer- 
Thereferen- endum. Any bill which passes the two houses, on de- 

dum. J k 

mand of eight cantons or thirty thousand citizens, must 
be submitted to a vote of the people before it can be- 
come valid. Since this was adopted, in 1874, the people 
have rejected many proposed measures. 

These rugged mountaineers, who so long have main- 
Races, tained their independence, and who now have so free a 
republic in the heart of monarchical Europe, are not of 
one race. About two thirds of the three million people 



Education. 



The Small Central States. 287 

are German, being in the majority in fifteen cantons. 
There are upwards of six hundred thousand French, 
controlling five cantons. One canton (the Ticino), with 
one hundred fifty thousand people, is Italian, and one 
(the Grisons), with less than forty thousand, is Ro- 
mansch. In the national legislature the three main 
languages are all used indifferently. 

Of its schools Switzerland is justly proud. There is 
a magnificent system of free education, with the best 
appliances and the best instructors that modern science 
can provide. A fair comparison of illiteracy among the 
European nations is afforded by the tests applied to the 
recruits annually drafted into the army. In 1888, only . 1 1 
of one per cent of the Swiss recruits could neither read 
nor write. Compare this with the 80 per cent of illiter- 
ates among the recruits of Russia, the 38.44 per cent 
in Italy, 6.4 per cent in France, and even with the .22 
of one per cent in Germany. 

The Swiss are not wealthy. They are industrious, 
honest, and intelligent in the highest degree. And the 
little republic is the natural home of courts of arbitra- 
tion and conferences in the interest of peace, and of 
international beneficence, like the Society of the Red 
Cross. 

The history of the Netherlands, like that of Switzer- Tne Nether- 
land, has been greatly modified by the extraordinary lands - 
nature of the country. Switzerland is a mass of rugged 
mountains. The Netherlands lie below the sea level, 
and so the land has to be protected by dykes. 

Napoleon said that Holland was only the washing of 

„ . . , , , . / ~ , , Holland was the 

rrench rivers, and so he annexed it. Others have former name, 
called it a sort of transition between land and sea — the inaTso-caiied. 
end of the earth and the beginning of the ocean — a P i e e Dutch. 6 
measureless raft of mud and sand. Philip II. of Spain 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



called it the country nearest to hell. Philip ought to 
have known. He burned his fingers there. 

The fact is it is an artificial country. The Dutch made 
it. They keep it only by incessant toil. If they should 
stop working at the dykes, the sea would reclaim the 
greater part of the Netherlands. Sometimes the ocean 
gets the better even of Dutch vigilance and industry, as 
in the thirteenth century, when the inundations opened a 
a project for vast chasm in North Holland and formed the Zuyder 
Zuyder Zee has Zee over what was then a populous and fertile district. 

been formed re- __. , , . . r 

centiy. Eighty thousand people were swept out 01 existence. 

Two facts in history have left their mark on the char- 
acter of the Dutch. One is the eighty years' war of 
independence against Spain. This was a struggle of 
unparalleled ferocity. The Dutch revolted against civil 
and religious tyranny such as few peoples have had to 
endure. They were a few half-drowned provinces of 
sailors and merchants, and their oppressor was then the 
greatest power in Europe. But they won the fight. 
The other characteristic fact is that the Dutch were at 
one time a great maritime and naval power. Two hun- 
dred years ago they were rivals of England on equal 
terms for commerce and colonies. And to-day the 
Netherlands are second only to Great Britain in colonial 
possessions. 

The French When the French revolutionary wars broke out there 

was discord among the Hollanders, of which the French 
availed themselves to conquer the country. It was in 
this war that the invaders performed the unusual exploit 
of taking a Dutch fleet by a charge of cavalry. It 
should be added that the ships were frozen in the ice. 
The Netherlands were made into the Batavian repub- 
lic, to match the Helvetic republic in the south of France. 
But when Napoleon became emperor he converted the 



Revolution. 



The Small Central States. 289 

republic into a kingdom, and gave the crown to his 
brother Louis (the father of Louis Napoleon). But the 
crash of 1814-15 overturned all of Napoleon's client 
kingdoms, and the allies at the Congress of Vienna 
made a new kingdom, the Netherlands, by uniting Hol- 
land and Belgium (taking the latter from France). The 
crown was given to the son of the last stadtholder, as 
King William I. 

The ill-assorted union with Belgium lasted only until Bel ian revolt 
1830. There was little in common between the two l83 °- 
countries. Holland is Protestant, Belgium almost unani- 
mously Roman Catholic. Holland is devoted to com- 
merce, Belgium to manufactures. The language of 
Holland is Dutch, that of Belgium French and Flemish. 
And under the union the Belgians felt that Holland was 
trying to make the whole kingdom Dutch. Accordingly 
they revolted in 1830, and succeeded in establishing their 
independence. 

The kingdom of the Netherlands is a constitutional 
monarchy. The constitution is very liberal, and suffrage 
is practically universal. The eleven provinces are much 
like the states of our Union, or the Swiss cantons. 

The educational system is as thorough as in Switzer- 
land, and the level of intelligence is exceedingly high. 
In short, the Dutch are a very modern people. From 
the first they showed energy and genius far ahead of 
their times. Their war with the North Sea trained them 
to great feats of engineering. Their war with their 
Spanish oppressors gave them perforce civil and religious 
liberty. They cut the dykes and flooded their land 
rather than yield to the Spanish invaders. They cele- 
brated their victory at the terrible siege of Leyden by 
founding the university at that city, at a time when they 
were yet hemmed in by deadly war. And when the 



290 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Spanish troops were penetrating to the heart of the re- 
public with fire and sword, the Dutch fleets quietly sailed 
with the usual cargoes on their distant trading voyages. 

As colonizers the Dutch have been among the most 
successful nations. Our own state of New York was a 
Dutch colony. So was Cape Colony in South Africa. 
And the Netherlands yet rule over nearly thirty million 
people in the East and West Indies. 

Belgium is a very different country. When the 
Belgium. powers intervened to prevent the Dutch from reconquer- 

ing it in 1830, a 



responsibility 
was incurred 
which was met by 
a general guaran- 
tee of the neutral- 
ity of the new 
state. And in 
that respect it is 
on the same foot- 
ing as Switzer- 
land. Belgium is 
an old battleground of the nations. Its soil has been 
soaked with the blood of countless wars. From its 
situation it is naturally an object of desire to France, 
and, indeed, for twenty years was included in the 
territory of that nation. The Belgian constitution makes 
it a liberal monarchy. The suffrage, until 1893, was 
very much restricted. It is the most densely populated 
country in Europe, and, as has been said, the people are 
nearly all Catholics. Out of about six million people there 
are only ten thousand Protestants and four thousand 
Jews. Still, there is full religious liberty, and the clerical 
control of the public schools has been greatly relaxed. 




The Small Central States. 



291 



King Leopold II. is one of the most enlightened of 
European monarchs. It was under his patronage and at 
his private expense that the Congo was occupied in 1879. 
In 1885 the Congo Free State was recognized by the 
powers, with King 
Leopold as its sov- 
ereign. By subse- 
quent arrangements 
between the king and 
Belgium, the latter is 
authorized to annex 
the Free State in 1 900. 
This great central 
African dominion is 
one of the most suc- 
cessful of the Euro- 
pean attempts at civ- 
ilizing the ' 'dark con- 
tinent." 

In 1893 there was 
a determined effort 
made by the laboring Leopold ii. 

r1n<5<5P<5 to <;prnrp r V,p King of the Belgians. Born, 1835. Cousin of Queen 
ciciaacB l«j =cluic tut Victoria and grandson of King Louis Philippe. 

adoption of universal Succeeded his father > Leopold i., 1865. 
suffrage. By the laws at that time existing there was a 
property qualification for voting, with the result that 
only about one in forty-six of the people had the right. 
In our country about one person in five is a voter. The 
legislature was finally induced to pass a law extending 
suffrage, but in a peculiar way. Universal suffrage was 
granted, but an additional vote was given to heads of fam- 
ilies and to property owners under certain conditions, in 
such way that the more substantial citizens should have two 
or three votes apiece. Voting is also made obligatory. 




See article ir* 

The North 

American 

Review, 

November, 

1893. 



292 Europe in the Nineteenth Ce?itury. 

SUMMARY. 

Switzerland is a pure democracy in the midst of mon- 
archies. It is the home of the referendum. 

Holland, reclaimed from the sea by a commercial people, is 
second only to England in colonial possessions. 

Belgium, a liberal monarchy, has universal suffrage and 
compulsory voting. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

NORTHMEN AND SOUTHRONS. 

The student of history knows that geography has Effect of 

11 r 1 • n i 1 ,,..,. geography on 

had a powerful influence on the development of civih- the course of 

t t* ..... history. 

zation. In Europe the great historic migrations have 
poured over the central plains. The coasts have suffered 
from pirates, and have been seized and settled by Norse 
sea rovers. The mountain knot of the Alps has enabled 
a scanty but brave people to protect their liberty in the 
west, just as has been the case with the Slav moun- 
taineers of Montenegro in the east. Similar protection 
has been afforded by the morasses and canals which 
made Venice and Holland free maritime republics. 

The peninsulas at the northern and southern extremi- 
ties of the continent illustrate, each in its own way, this 
same great truth. The Iberian peninsula connects 
(save only for a narrow strait) the continent of Africa 
with Europe. And the successive invasions of one 
continent from the other accordingly passed through 
the length of Spain. It was in this way that the Vandals in the fifth 
passed into Africa, and it was across the Strait of Gib- 
raltar that the Arabs came into Europe. Long before century,' a. d. 
these events the Iberian Celts had been subjugated by 
the Romans. And the Iberian peninsula was not only 
an outlet for these and other various races, but was an 
eddy in their movement. All left their traces, in blood 
and speech and manners. 

The northern peninsulas, on the other hand, lead 
nowhere — or at least nowhere whither any one cares to 



294 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



go. And so they have been the scene of few inva- 
sions, and their inhabitants show relatively little mix- 
ture of blood. 

Since connection between Europe and Africa has 
been broken off, all these peninsulas have been secluded 
from the main movements of European life. Thus they 
have to a great degree avoided the shock of conflicting 
interests which has made European history so tumultu- 
ous. Each has in recent times been drawn only in- 
cidentally into the contest of nations. And so each has 
been suffered to work out its destiny with no great 
hindrance from others. 

There are some of the denizens of these lands who do 
not agree that their homes have always been by-places. 
Olaus Rudbeck had a theory that the Scandinavian 
peninsula was the seat of the Garden of Eden, and that 
Noah's ark landed in Sweden. This reminds one of 
the Dutch book which was written to prove that Adam 
and Eve spoke Dutch in Paradise. Both theories are 
patriotic. 

All the races of Europe are mixed. The only differ- 
Races. ence is in degree. The Scandinavians are among the 

least composite, while the Spaniards are the most com- 
plex of all. 

The Scandinavians are the northern branch of the 
Teutonic race. The three branches, Swedish, Nor- 
wegian, and Danish, have no radical difference. In 
speech and ideas they are very similar. In Sweden, out 
Population. of a population of about five million, there are about 
nineteen thousand Finns and six thousand Lapps, both 
non-Aryan races. In Norway there are about two 
million people, of whom some twenty thousand are 
Lapps and nine thousand Finns. Norway is the most 
sparsely settled country in Europe, having only fourteen 



Northmen and Southrons. 



295 



persons to the square mile, while Belgium has five 
hundred thirty-five. Denmark has about two million 
people, almost entirely Scandinavians. 

Spain has nearly twice as many people as all the 
Scandinavian lands — almost eighteen million. As has 
been said, the Spaniards are a mixed people, of Celtic, 
Italian, and Teutonic races. But their speech, oddly 
enough, is a very pure one. It is estimated that six 
tenths of the Spanish words are Latin, one tenth Teu- 
tonic, one tenth Greek and liturgical, one tenth Ameri- 
can or borrowed from other modern tongues, and one 
tenth Arabic. The language is a noble and sonorous 
tongue. There is in Spain an island of primitive people 
who are not Aryans — the Basques, some four hundred The Basques, 
thousand in number. They are supposed to be de- 
scended from the prehistoric inhabitants who were in 
the land before the Celts came. 

The Portuguese, about five million in number, are 
also a thoroughly mixed race. 

The political division of the southern peninsula is un- 
fortunate. There seems no sufficient reason why Spain 
and Portugal should not have formed one united state. 

Between the northern and southern peninsulas there 
are other contrasts than those of race and speech. In 
the Scandinavian lands the Lutheran Church is estab- 
lished by law, and there is a strong prejudice against 
other forms of religion, especially the Roman Catholic. 
In Spain and Portugal, however, the latter is the estab- 
lished Church. To be sure, the present constitutions 
guarantee religious liberty. But while the organic law 
does in fact secure liberty of the person, of speech, of 
the press, and of meeting, there is little real liberty of 
religion. The first Protestant service was celebrated in 
Madrid in 1869. But there is a strong national preju- 



Contrast in 
religion. 



296 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Contrast in 
education. 



Scandinavia 

in 1800. 



Denmark and 
Sweden. 



Peace of Kiel, 
1814. 



dice against Protestants. The intelligent classes quite 
generally become rationalists. But they are not Protes- 
tants. 

Education in the Scandinavian countries is free and 
compulsory, and the people avail themselves of it 
eagerly. Only one tenth of one per cent of the recruits 
in Sweden and Norway are unable to read and write. 

Spain has a comprehensive educational system on 
paper. But in fact the population is very ignorant. 
Only a fourth of the people can read and write. In 
Portugal this proportion is only eighteen per cent. 

When the nineteenth century opened, Denmark was 
a greater kingdom than it is to-day. It then included 
Norway and the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. 
Norway had been united to Denmark since 1380. Swe- 
den had Finland, which is now a part of Russia, and 
Swedish Pomerania, on the south shore of the Baltic. 

During the French wars Denmark was steadfastly 
loyal to Napoleon. The wanton bombardment of Co- 
penhagen by an English fleet in 1807 did not serve to 
detach the Danes from the French alliance. And so 
when the allies triumphed, in 18 14, Denmark had to 
pay the penalty. Meanwhile Sweden had chosen one 
of Napoleon's marshals, Charles John Bernadotte, as 
crown prince. And the Swedes had deserted Napoleon 
when the tide turned against him. But meanwhile 
Russia had conquered Finland. 

The Peace of Kiel, in 18 14, made various territorial 
rearrangements. Norway was given to Sweden. Pom- 
erania and Rugen were given to Denmark in compensa- 
tion. That state afterwards exchanged them for Lauen- 
burg. The island of Heligoland was ceded to England.* 



*In 1890 England transferred Heligoland to Germany, receiving in return 
German recognition of an English protectorate over Zanzibar. 



Northmen and Southrons. 



297 



Norway was greatly dissatisfied at being assigned so 
arbitrarily to Sweden, and on May 17, 18 14, a conven- 
tion at Eidsvold declared Norway independent. A free 
constitution was 
drawn up, and a 
Danish prince 
elected to the 
throne. But a 
Swedish army, 
aided by an Eng- 
lish fleet, put down 
the insurrection, 
and the Nor- 
wegians had to 
yield. But the 
Swedes accepted 
the constitution of 
Eidsvold, granting 
Norway autonomy 
in all but the crown 
and the depart- 
ment of foreign 
affairs. When 



Norwegian 
Declaration of 
Independence, 
May 17, 1814. 




Bernadotte succeeded to the throne (as Karl XIV.), he 
attempted to draw the union closer, but with little 
success. 

The Norwegians are a very democratic people. In 
1824 they abolished all aristocratic privileges. They 
have also a keen sense of nationality, and so have 
jealously maintained their separate privileges. Norwe- 
gian politics have largely turned on this question of home 
rule. In 1884 they succeeded in taking from the crown 
its absolute veto of constitutional amendments. The 
king resisted, but when the Storthing (Parliament) tried 



Karl XIV. 
(Bernadotte), 



Norwegian 
politics. 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century, 



and convicted the ministers for obeying him, he yielded, 
and summoned the radical leader, Sverdrup, as head of 
his Norwegian cabinet. At present there is a determined 
attempt on the part of the Norwegians to secure a sepa- 
rate foreign ministry. These dissensions in the peninsula, 
Russia is supposed to consider with indulgence. A 
Russo-Norwegian alliance might, under some circum- 
stances, be a means of holding Sweden in check, and at 
the same time of giving Russia an outlet on the Atlantic. 
Govamment. All the Scandinavian kingdoms have liberal constitu- 

tions, with the 
English system of 
ministerial respon- 
sibility now so gen- 
erally adopted on 
the Continent. Of 
course the Swedish 
Parliament* is dis- 
tinct from that of 
Norway. Sweden 
is a country of 
more wealth than 
its fellow king- 
dom, and there is 
a powerful aristocracy as well. This adds to the politi- 
cal reasons a social reason for discord. The union 
seems, on the whole, rather ill assorted. 

Denmark held the duchies, Schleswig, Holstein, and 
Lauenburg, until they were wrested from her in the war 
of 1864. The Danes made a gallant fight, but were over- 
See p. 150. powered by the superior forces of the Germans. Thus 
the kingdom has shrunk far within the limits of 1800. 




si®™...* 






* The Swedish Parliament until 1866 had four houses— representing the 
nobles, the clergy, the towns, and the peasants. There are now two houses. 



Northmen and Southrons. 



299 



Spain, when the eighteenth century ended, was under Spain 
the feeble rule of a Bourbon king. In 1808 he was 
forced to abdicate by Napoleon, who put his brother, 
Joseph Bonaparte, on the Spanish throne. But this ex- 
cited the patriotic rage of the Spanish people, who rose 
over the whole pen- 
insula against the 
French king and his 
foreign army. The 
insurrection was at 
last successful, 
owing partly to the 
wars in central 
Europe which drew 
away Napoleon, 
partly to the furious 
valor of the Spanish 
people, and partly 
to aid given by 
England. 

Meanwhile, during 
the war of liberation , 
the patriots who 
were fighting the 
king's battles drew 
up a constitution. 
This established a 
national Parliament, 
the Cortes, elected 

by universal suffrage. Feudal privileges and the inqui- 
sition were suppressed, and the press was made free. 
Ferdinand VII. was glad to get his throne back on any 
terms, and so he readily swore to observe the constitu- 
tion. 




Oscar II. 
King of Sweden and Norway 



Grandson of Bernadotte. 
crown, 1872. 



orn, 1829. 
Succeeded to the 



Constitution of 
1812. 



3oo 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The reaction. 



Revolution of 
1820. 



Death of 
Ferdinand. 



This law did 
not prevail in 
Spain till the 
time of the 
first Bourbon 
king, Philip 
V. (1700-46). 



The value of a Bourbon's oaths, however, was soon 
discovered. In 18 14 Napoleon was overthrown. The 
Spanish king was safe on his throne again, and no 
longer needed the men who had fought and suffered to 
bring him back. Accordingly the constitution was 
abrogated, and absolute government restored. The 
Liberals who had dared to adopt modern ideas of free- 
dom were imprisoned and executed. The censorship of 
the press was again set up. The nobles and clergy were 
exempted from taxation. The monastic orders and the 
Jesuits were allowed to return, the inquisition was 
reestablished, and the Church lands, which had been 
sequestrated by the revolutionists, were restored. Thus 
there was quite a complete return to old ideas. Re- 
actionaries and clericals were supreme. 

But in 1820 the Liberals rose in insurrection. The 
king was terrified, and a second time swore to observe 
the constitution of 1S12. And the Liberals managed 
the government for him. But the monarchs who had 
formed the Holy Alliance promptly came to the assist- 
ance of their brother. France was delegated to execute 
the task, and in 1823 a French army invaded Spain and 
restored Ferdinand to absolute power. He at once 
broke his oath a second time. The constitution was 
again abrogated. The leaders of the insurrection were 
put to death with atrocious cruelty. And for the rest 
of this reign there was a vigorous persecution of all 
Liberals. 

In 1833 Ferdinand died. He had no sons, and by 
the Salic law the succession should have gone to his 
brother, Don Carlos. But Ferdinand provided before 
his death that the Salic law should be annulled and that 
the crown should pass to his daughter, Isabella (then 
only three years old), with Queen Christina as regent. 



Northmen and Southrons. 301 

Carlos refused to abide by this arrangement, and led 
a revolt which lingered until 1839. It was finally put 
down, and Don Carlos went into banishment. 

From the regency of Queen Christina dates the utter 
corruption of Spanish administration. It was bad enough 
before, but under the regency there was a carnival of 
dishonesty and inefficiency. 

In 1868 the nation was thoroughly tired of the rotten Revolution of 
government and the disreputable court, and a revolt of 
the army and navy was immediately successful. The 
queen was sent to France, and a provisional govern- 
ment was established with Marshals Serrano and Prim 
and Admiral Topete at the head. There followed two 
years of negotiation for a new king, in the course of 
which a Hohenzollern prince was for a time under con- 
sideration. It was this that led to the Franco- Prussian 
War in 1870. 

In that year the choice finally fell on Prince Amadeo, Reign of 
second son of the king of Italy, Victor Emmanuel. 
Amadeo was an honest and kind-hearted king, but he 
found Spain a hotbed of intrigue which made his life 
unendurable. In 1873 he abdicated. Then the republic The republic, 
was proclaimed. It lasted only two years, in which 
space of time there were no less than four presidents. 
Emilio Castelar was the most prominent of these. But 
it ended in a military dictatorship. And the son of ex- 
Queen Isabella was then invited to the throne, as 
Alfonso XII. He was himself a thorough Liberal, and Aifonsoxn. 
not merely accepted the Liberal constitution, but ex- 
plicitly declared that he would reign only so long as the 
Spanish nation wanted him. It was his ambition to be 
"the first republican in Europe." Alfonso died in 
1886, and was succeeded by his posthumous son, 
Alfonso XIII. 



302 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Portugal. 



The government has continued as a liberal monarchy, 
with a responsible ministry and a lower house of the 
legislature chosen by universal suffrage. 

Castelar is yet sure that the republic will come in 
time, but, as he says, "by evolution, not by revolu- 
tion. ' ' His program 
is to educate the 
people, and then 
let them decide for 
themselves. 

Napoleon drove 
the House of Bra- 
ganza from the 
Portuguese throne, 
and the royal family 
took refuge in Bra- 
zil. After the fall of 
Napoleon, Portugal 
was ruled from Rio 
Janeiro until 1821. 
The king then re- 
turned to Lisbon, 
and the reactionary 
policy prevailed in 
Portugal as in the 

Born, 1832. Orator, journalist, author, professor. , r -r> 

President of the Spanish republic, 1873-4. re = L ul c* u 1 u 1 J c . 

After a temporary 
triumph of liberalism in 1834, the reactionaries were 
again supreme, and held power until 1852. In that 
year a free constitution was adopted, quite similar to 
the one now in force in Spain. The suffrage is limited 
to heads of families, or others who have at least one 
hundred dollars' income and can read and write. 

Spain and Portugal have sadly degenerated since the 




Emilio Castelar. 



Northmen and Southrons. 



303 



Spanish 
characteristics. 



time of Columbus. Then Portugal was taking the lead Decadence of 

.... , „ . r . the two 

in maritime discovery, and Spain was one or the great nations, 
powers. The two nations claimed all the New World, 
and the pope, in 1493, divided it between them. But 
to-day both are weak, isolated, and decayed. Ages of 
despotism, civil and spiritual, have done their work. 

The Spaniards are a temperate people — perhaps as a 
necessity of their climate. The proverbial taciturnity of 
the nation is a myth. They are rather careless of com- 
forts, but fond of luxuries. They have not yet learned 
sufficient regard for the sanctity of law. There is a 
common saying, ' ' Laws are made to be broken, not to 
be obeyed. ' ' And 
civil administra- 
tion is not very 
honest or efficient. 
Personal quarrels 
are apt to be fero- 
cious. General 
Narvaez, appoint- 
ed first minister of 
young Queen Isa- 
bella in 1843, was 
asked on his 

deathbed to forgive his enemies. He said, naively, 
that he did not know of any who were left — he thought 
he had killed them all. 

Under these conditions the process of improvement 
must be slow. And Spain is not a rich country. Its 
great colonial possessions are nearly all gone. Cuba 
and Porto Rico, the Philippine Islands, a few stations 
on the Moorish coast, yet remain, and Morocco, Spain 
expects to inherit. The posts on the African coast are 
held partly with that view. 




304 Etir'ope in the Nineteenth Century. 

Portugal has still considerable colonial possessions in 
Africa, and some in Asia. But the energy of the 
fifteenth century has gone. 

SUMMARY. 

The history of the peninsular states of northern and 
southern Europe has been largely influenced by their geo- 
graphical position. 

These states are strongly contrasted in race, politics, and 
religion. 

After the restoration of the Bourbons in Spain, their failure 
to keep their pledges led to the insurrection of 1820, which 
was suppressed by the Holy Alliance. 

A republic established in 1873 lasted two years, and the 
Bourbons were then recalled. 



PART VII-TODAY. 



PRELIMINARY. 

The political and social problems of the last decade 
of the nineteenth century are such as arise from the 
natural unfolding of society since the French Revolu- 
tion. The very extensive invention and use of machines, 
together with the mastery of natural forces, has multi- 
plied the power to produce commodities beyond the 
wildest dreams of past ages. Persons, property, and 
intelligence are now transferred from place to place with 
great speed and at extremely low cost. Knowledge has 
become diffused among the masses. Wealth has been 
created in enormous volumes. All these physical 
achievements have been the means of rearranging popu- 
lation on a large scale. Many millions of the working 
classes have been able to leave the Old World and have 
founded homes in the New. The various powers of 
Europe have taken possession of barbaric lands, so that 
Asia, Africa, and Oceanica are now almost wholly in 
European hands. And all these facts have materially 
altered the conditions of life. The masses have learned 
to unite for the attainment of common ends. The very 
prosperity of modern industrial enterprises has in turn 
generated its own forms of poverty and crime. The 
overthrow or transformation of so many institutions has 
led to a critical state of mind. What next? is the 
habitual question of society. And progress is a series 
of answers. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

PROGRESS OF THE WORLD. 

The latter half of the eighteenth century was memo- 
rable for a series of inventions which multiplied many inventions of 

r J the eighteenth 

fold the efficiency of manufacturing. The nineteenth century, 
century has gained control of certain natural forces, 
which, applied to machines, have again greatly extended 
their power, and, applied to transportation, have made it 
so speedy and cheap that the products of human labor 
are now put easily and abundantly in reach of the world. 

The material progress of the age has no better expo- 
nent than may be seen in the history of three substances 
— cotton, iron, and coal. The one is plucked from a plant an"^! 1 ™"' 
which grows freely in many parts of the world, the other 
is a constituent of the rocks, the third is the fossil remains 
of ancient vegetation which for ages uncounted has been 
crushed under the earth. These three things, under the 
stress of human intelligence, have transformed the world. 

Cotton, or ' ' tree wool," as Herodotus called it twenty- Cotton, 
four centuries ago and as the Germans call it to-day, has 
been known and used somewhere in the world as long as 
there is any record of anything. In India the origin of 
its culture and use is lost in the past, and in China it 
dates back many centuries. Europe, however, until 
late in the Middle Ages, was ignorant of it in any form, 
people being clothed in woolen, linen, and silk. After 
the revival of commerce, caused by the discovery of a I497 . 
route to India around the Cape of Good Hope, the 
cotton thread and cloth made in India were imported 

307 



3o8 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Woolen manu- 
facture. 



Domestic 
cotton manu- 
facture. 



into Europe, and gradually made their way into rather 
common use. 

The manufacture of wool had been in the hands of 
every family, carding, spinning, and weaving being 
ordinary household avocations. The distaff, indeed, 
was for so many centuries an implement distinctively 
feminine as to have become imbedded in literature as a 
synonym for woman. And to this day an unmarried 
girl is described as a " spinster. ' ' Many an attic in 
America still holds among its lumber the spinning-wheel 
which was so busy an implement in the days of our 
grandmothers. 

The processes are the same now as then. The wool 
has first to be combed out until its fibers lie straight and 
parallel. This is called "carding." Then portions of 
it are spun together into continuous yarn or thread — 
the spinning twisting the fibers so as to make it com- 
pact and strong. Then a series of these threads lying 
parallel — the "warp" — is interwoven with another series 
at right angles — the ' ( woof " or " weft. ' ' And the 
product is a piece of cloth as long as the warp and as 
wide as the frame on which it is made. 

When cotton wool began to be imported from India, 
these familiar processes were applied to it. But it was 
found that at first people in Europe could not make 
cotton thread strong enough for the warp, and so they 
used linen or wool for that purpose. Thus the product 
was a mixture. The manufacture was not carried on 
in factories, as is the case now. The weaver did his 
work in his own home, his wife and daughters spinning 
the yarn which he used. 

But weaving was a quicker process than carding and 
spinning, and so the weaver found it very hard to get 
enough yarn to keep him busy. This difficulty was 



Progress of the World. 



309 



frame.' 



obviated by the successive inventions of three men, 
Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton. Hargreaves 
was a poor weaver who devised the idea of connecting a 
series of upright spindles with a single wheel, and 
enabling one spinster to do the work of eight the old 
way. His machine he called the spinning "Jenny," The"jenny. 
after his wife. Arkwright, who began life as a barber's 
apprentice, contrived a machine which passed the cotton 
through rollers, thus making the thread much smaller 
and stronger than had been possible before, and en- 
abling it to be used as warp. As his power was afforded 
by a water wheel, his machine was called a water frame. The "water 
A young weaver, Crompton, combined the merits of 
both devices in what, from its origin doubtless, was 
called the "mule." The cotton passed through rollers 
and was received by a series of movable spindles, which 
alternately approached and receded from the rollers. 
Thus the yarn was given the requisite tenuity, and, being 
spun at the same time, was made very strong. ' ' Before 
Crompton' s time it was thought impossible to spin eighty 
hanks to the pound. The mule has spun three hundred 
fifty hanks to the pound. The natives of India could 
spin a pound of cotton into a thread one hundred nine- 
teen miles long. The English succeeded in spinning the 
same thread to a length of one hundred sixty miles." 

Thus the first difficulty was solved. The spinster had 
not only caught up with the weaver, but had gone far 
beyond. More yarn was at hand now than could be 
woven, and it was so fine and strong that it could be 
used as warp, so that goods could be made all cotton. 

The weaving was now developed to keep pace with 
the spinning by the invention of the power loom. The 
Rev. Edmund Cartwright was a clergyman, who knew 
nothing of machinery. But his attention being called to 



Walpole, I., 62. 



The power 
loom, 1787. 



310 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

the need, he set his wits to work and soon contrived the 
loom which did for weaving what the mule had done for 
spinning. Thereafter the only limit to the power of 
production was the capital to provide machinery and to 
pay for wages and raw material. 

Two other inventions which accompanied these may 

be mentioned. The process of bleaching cloth in the 

Bleaching by sun was often a task of weeks. In 178 s a French 

chlorine, 1785. ' ^ 

chemist, Berthollet, hit on the process of applying 
chlorine, then recently discovered, to this purpose. At 
once the time needed was reduced to a few hours. 

At about the same time a Scotchman, Bell, succeeded 
in an invention for printing calico. "Prints," or "cal- 

Printing calico, ico " (a name derived from Calicut, in India), had been 
imported from Hindustan. The first printing on cloth 
in Europe was from flat wooden blocks, and was a very 
slow and clumsy process. Bell invented the copper 
cylinder engraved with the desired pattern. By its 
revolution the cloth was printed rapidly and accurately. 
It only remained to assure an ample supply of raw 

The cotton gin. cotton. This was effected in 1793 by the invention of 
the cotton gin. The southern states of the American 
Union raised cotton, but it was nearly worthless because 
of the difficulty of separating the seed from the wool. 
Eli Whitney, a New England Yankee, invented a gin 
which did the work with entire success. At once the 
sea islands of Carolina and Georgia teemed with heavy 
crops of the best cotton in the world. And Europe was 
emancipated from Indian cloth, Indian yarn, and Indian 
raw cotton as well. 

About two thirds of all the cotton spindles in Europe 
are in the British Islands. And their product is enor- 
mous. In the middle of the eighteenth century, less 
than three million pounds of cotton wool were imported 



Progress of the World. 3 1 1 

into Great Britain. Now the annual importation is 
about one billion five hundred million pounds. And 
the manufacturer to-day can afford to sell for a penny 
what a hundred years ago he could not have sold for 
less than a shilling. 

The use of iron has so greatly extended in this century iron, 
as to give quite another character to modern construc- 
tion. And the form in which it is now most common is 
that known as steel — which is merely iron with a small 
percentage of carbon. Steel is much stronger and more 
rigid than cast or wrought iron. It is used in building 
machines, in constructing railroads, in the framework of 
large buildings, and now steel ships are displacing those 
made of wood. Ours is quite literally an age of steel. 

More than a third of the iron ore produced in the 
world is the product of British mines, although Germany 
and France also afford a large supply. Iron ore, until 
long in the eighteenth century, was smelted by wood as 
fuel. This caused so alarming a consumption of the 
English forests that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth a 
statute was enacted to restrict the extension of iron 
furnaces. A solution was found in the eighteenth cen- 
tury by using coal as fuel — either directly or in the form i 735 . 
of coke. As the British coal beds seemed limitless CoaL 
(supplying to-day about a half of the entire world's 
consumption), there was no longer any trouble in 
securing the means of smelting. And there resulted a 
great impetus to the manufacture and use of iron. 
Coal pits and iron mines and furnaces were opened in 
great numbers. Population increased in the north of 
England where all this work was going on, and by the 
opening of the nineteenth century the transformation 
was made. Great Britain was a manufacturing rather 
than a commercial nation. 



312 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The safety 
lamp, 1815. 



The hot blast, 
1828. 



The steam 
hammer, 1842. 

Encyclopaedia 
Britannica, 
Art. " Ham- 
mer," XI., p. 
426. 



Bessemer steel. 



Among the many inventions of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, several have had a great influence on the produc- 
tion of coal and iron. Coal mining was accompanied by 
great danger from the explosion of " fire damp," a gas 
readily ignited by contact with the miner's lamp. In 
18 1 5 Sir Humphry Davy perfected his safety lamp. 
The simple device of covering the flame with wire gauze 
was found to be a complete protection. Not only were 
lives protected, but many dangerous mines became per- 
fectly safe to work. And thus the quantity of accessible 
coal was greatly increased. 

About 1828 Neilson first used the hot blast. A blast 
of cold air driven through molten iron had been em- 
ployed to burn out impurities. The hot blast generated 
a more intense heat and did the work more effectually 
with great economy of fuel and time. 

The increased use of iron in industry led, in 1842, to 
the invention of the steam hammer, by James Nasmyth. 
" By the simple device of attaching the hammer head 
to the lower end of the rod of a piston working in an 
inverted steam cylinder, he produced a machine capable 
of being made to deliver its blows with a force to which 
no limit has yet been found, and yet so perfectly under 
control as to be able to crack a hazelnut without injuring 
the kernel. To the introduction of this invaluable tool 
is due more than to any other single cause the power 
which we now possess of producing the forgings of iron 
and steel which are demanded by the arts of modern 
times ; and in one or other of its many forms it is now 
to be met with in every workshop in which heavy work 
is carried on." 

And a change in the industrial world as momentous 
as any which preceded was effected by the new processes 
of producing steel which make that article so cheap as 



Progress of the World. 



313 



The steam 
engine. 



to supersede iron for nearly all important construction. 
Of that we shall speak later. 

The use of iron and coal has been increased incalcu- 
lably by the invention of steam machinery. Coal is the 
essential fuel in generating steam, and iron and steel are 
needed in vast quantities not only for steam engines but 
for rails and shipbuilding. Thus each new device of 
human ingenuity reacts on others to stimulate and vary 
their uses. Steam is the motive power which has made 
the material progress of the nineteenth century so 
marvelous. But without abundant coal and iron, steam 
would have been of little value. And without steam 
and its countless applications, coal and iron would have 
had a sluggish demand. 

Machines are only devices to transfer or to save power. 
They are a great convenience. But the force of muscle, 
whether of men or other animals, is somewhat limited, 
and from an early period other powers have been sought 
to do the work which expanding civilization demands. 
Wind and water have long been harnessed to human 
desire. But both are capricious. The wind bloweth 
where — and when — it listeth. And in time of drought 
the mill wheel is still. Steam was known long before it 
was used as power. In the seventeenth century there 
were vague speculations as to its possibilities. Early in 
the eighteenth a rude engine had been devised and was 
employed to drive a pump which kept water from a 
mine. James Watt, a Scotchman, was the first one, Watt's engine, 
however, to contrive an engine for the use of steam 
power which was efficient and economical. This was in 
1769. From this time the use of the new force ex- 
tended rapidly, and, by the close of the century, mills 
and factories of all sorts were running by steam power. 

Thus, when the nineteenth century opened, the capital 



1769. 



3H 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Transportation. 



Roman roads. 



Walpole, His- 
tory of England, 
I., 84. For the 
seventeenth 
century, see 
Macaulay's 
History of Eng- 
land, Chap. III. 



discoveries which have transformed the world had been 
made. Machinery had been invented which could man- 
ufacture cloth in limitless quantities. A power had been 
found which could run all the spindles for which there 
might be demand. A fuel was at hand which would 
cheaply generate steam to any extent. And iron could 
be provided readily for all uses. Our century has made 
its vast material progress by the vigorous employment 
of these means of production, and by their readaptation 
and improvement. 

The greatest new application of steam machinery was 
to the uses of transportation. 

It was obviously of little moment to increase the power 
of producing commodities unless it should be possible to 
bring them within the reach of large numbers of people. 
From the earliest times water transit had been found the 
easiest, and so, for purposes of traffic, men had collected 
along the banks of rivers or on the harbors of the sea. 
Here cities had grown up — London, Paris, Hamburg, 
Antwerp, Venice. And shipping, propelled by wind 
and oar, had been the means of vigorous industrial life 
throughout the Mediterranean basin and along the coasts 
and rivers of western Europe. 

The Romans understood the importance of land tran- 
sit, and to that end had covered their empire with a 
magnificent system of rock-ballasted highways. But as 
the Roman power decayed, their public works were 
neglected, and the roads of the Middle Ages were as 
rude as society in general. In England "in the eigh- 
teenth century the best roads were little better than 
bridle tracks, obstructed with mud at one season of the 
year, and with deep and dangerous ruts at another." 
Towards the middle of the century, attention was di- 
rected to the loss of time, money, and convenience re- 



Progress of the World. 



315 



suiting from this state of things, and much was done in 
the way of road building. Telford and Macadam made 
their names famous by their success in constructing ex- 
cellent highways. During the years from 1802 to 1820 
Telford was employed by the government to remedy the 
roads in Wales and Scotland. And in that period he 
built nine hundred twenty miles of road and twelve hun- 
dred bridges. The improved roads gave a great impulse 
to travel, and the system of stage coaches was reorgan- 
ized. " In April, 1820, Sir Walter Scott traveled from 
London to Scotland at the rate of ten miles an hour ; 
but the feat was so extraordinary that it was thought 
proper to chronicle it in the Annual Register." In 
18 1 2, thirteen hundred fifty-five stage coaches were 
assessed in England, and by 1825 the number was more 
than doubled. 

Meanwhile artificial waterways had been constructed 
on a large scale. The Dutch had been pioneers in this, 
readily turning sea into land or land into sea as suited 
their convenience. The French, in the seventeenth 
century, had constructed a canal to connect the Bay of 
Biscay with the Mediterranean. And in the latter part 
of the eighteenth century England carried out a great 
system of inland navigation. 

Thus, when the nineteenth century opened, there was 
already an intelligent interest in problems of transpor- 
tation, and much had been done to improve existing 
methods. 



Telford, 
Macadam. 



Walpole, I., 89. 



Canals. 



SUMMARY. 

The material progress of the century centers about three 
substances — cotton, iron, and coal. 

Spinning and weaving machines, the cotton gin, the safety 
lamp, the steam hammer, the Bessemer process, and the 
steam engine are the agents of modern industrial life. 



Fulton's 
steamboat, 1807. 



Ocean 
steamers. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

progress of the world {Continued). 

But at the very time when roads and canals were 
bringing Europe nearer together, experiments were 
making which were to revolutionize society more effect- 
ively than any political upheaval. 

The first successful use of a boat propelled by steam 
was on the Hudson River in 1807. Robert Fulton had 
previously attempted the same thing on the Seine with- 
out success, and in 1802 a steam tug had been put on a 
British canal, but had been laid aside because of the 
danger to the banks caused by the wash of the wheels. 
Fulton's invention was offered to the French govern- 
ment a few years before its success was demonstrated on 
the Hudson, but was declined on the ground that it was 
impracticable. Had Napoleon been able to use steam 
transports for his army at Boulogne in 1805 the in- 
vasion of England would not have been impossible, and 
the entire course of history since might have been very 
different. 

The use of steamboats advanced slowly, being first 
directed wholly to inland navigation. It was not till 
18 1 9 that a steam vessel crossed the Atlantic* In 
1838 two steamers, the Sirius and the Great Western, \ 
made the voyage successfully, and thereafter regular 
voyages were made. But for a long time steam vessels 



* This was the Savannah. But steam was used merely as an auxiliary to 
the sails, and the passage consumed twenty-five days. 

t The Great Western brought a paper printed in London, in which was a 
mathematical demonstration of the impossibility of the voyage. 

316 



Progress of the World. 317 

were not very valuable for transporting freight. The 
machinery was heavy and bulky, the consumption of 
coal enormous. Speaking roughly, it might be said 
that a ship of the old type, of a capacity of three thou- 
sand tons, might sail on so long a voyage as to require 
two thousand two hundred tons of coal — thus leaving 
room for only eight hundred tons of freight. Since 
about 1875 improvements in machinery have gone so far 
that those figures are now practically reversed. The 
new compound engines are so economical of coal that it Weils, Recent 

11 r -i Economic 

has been estimated that ' ' half a sheet of note paper will changes, 
develop sufficient power, when burned in connection 
with the triple expansion engine, to carry a ton a mile 
in an Atlantic steamer." Of course freight rates have 
fallen in proportion. Distance, it must be remembered, 
is, for business purposes, not measured in miles, but in 
time, money, and comfort. In an old-fashioned sailing 
ship the time required to cross the Atlantic was four to 
six weeks. The modern ocean greyhound does the 
same voyage in less than a week. For articles in which 
considerable value is contained in not excessive bulk, the 
cost of transportation is much less than in the old sailing 
ship. And the comfort of a modern voyage is incom- 
parably greater than on a sailing packet. 

Steamboats had been plying for some years before 
steam was successfully applied to land transit. The first 
efforts were directed to make a steam wagon for an StMm ,„„„„. D 

*-J O Led III Wdj^OllS. 

ordinary road. As early as 1802 a steam coach was 
patented in England, and great things were expected 
from it. But it resulted in nothing. And another 
similar device in 1829 also failed. The Duke of Well- 
ington, indeed, expressed himself emphatically against 
the practicability of the new motor. 

Meanwhile another line of experiment was being 



3i! 



Europe i?i the Nineteenth Century. 



steam railways, made in the hope of constructing a steam locomotive 
George ste- to draw cars on a railway. George Stephenson suc- 

phenson, 1812. . . . , - 

ceeded in constructing such a locomotive, and for some 
years it was used to haul coal at a colliery. In 1825 
the Stockton and Darlington Railway was opened, with 
steam locomotives of Stephenson's construction as the 
motive power. This obscure line attracted little atten- 
tion, however, and it was not until four years later that 
Europe awoke to the knowledge of what this new inven- 
The Liverpool tion meant. In 1829 the Liverpool and Manchester 

and Manchester ... . 

Railway, 1829. Railway was opened. The directors had seriously con- 




First Railway Passenger Train, Liverpool and Manchester 
Railway. 



sidered operating it with horses, but Stephenson induced 
them to offer a reward for the best locomotive engine 
possible, so as to give the new power a fair test. The 
"Rocket," Stephenson's engine, easily won the prize. 
And the steam railway was a settled thing. 

From that time the construction of steam railways 
went on very generally. It was settled that the traction 
of wheeled carriages on iron rails by a steam motor was 
economically practicable. 

Still, it was some years before the new means of land 

Recent railroad transit received a great impetus. In 1840 there were in 

operation less than five thousand miles of railway in the 

world, of which only two thousand one hundred thirty 



development. 



Prog?rss of the World. 3 1 9 

were in Europe. Construction was expensive and im- 
perfect. The organization and management of railroads 
and the adjustment of commerce to the new methods 
took time and experience to make completely efficient. 
There are now over three hundred thousand miles of 
railway in the world. The colossal systems are managed 
with an expertness as thorough as the working of a 
steam engine itself. And all business is now done on 
the basis of rapid and cheap transportation. Indeed, 
time and cost of transit have been steadily reduced as 
the mileage of railways has increased. 

An essential factor in perfecting" the management of The electric 

1 . & ,, . telegraph. 

extensive systems or transportation, as well as in recon- 
structing and coordinating production and exchange 
throughout the world, has been the electric telegraph. 

The rapid communication of intelligence through great 
distances has long been a subject for human ingenuity. 
For many ages some prearranged ideas, like news of an 
invasion, were conveyed by means of signal fires or 
smokes on hilltops. A later device, just preceding the Ear ] y 
present method, was the semaphore. Its arms, erected on tele & ra P s - 
hills at distances as great as the glass could cover, were 
moved into various positions to correspond with the let- 
ters of the alphabet. In this way a long message could be 
carried with considerable rapidity, provided there was no 
mist to interfere. A similar system has been elaborated 
in great detail for military purposes in the field, and is sus- 
ceptible of varied and flexible use. The name telegraph 
was devised for the semaphores, and thus was employed 
some years before the system of Morse was invented. 

The progress of knowledge as to the nature and uses Electr , c 
of electricity was slow. A series of discoveries disclosed tele s ra P h y- 
means of generating a current of electricity in a wire, 
and the effect of such a current in deflecting a magnetic 



320 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Results on 
transportation 
and commerce. 



Wells, Recent 
Economic 
Changes, p. 32, 
note. 



needle. As the wire could be made of any desired 
length, it was soon seen that this new electro-magnetic 
science would afford the means of communication be- 
tween distant points. The practical application was 
made by Morse in the United States in 1837, and in 
that year a line was successfully operated along the 
Great Western Railway in England. Wires strung on 
poles were soon followed by wires wound in cables 
which could be suspended under water. In 1851 a cable 
opened permanent telegraphic communication between 
France and England, and in 1858 the Atlantic itself was 
crossed. Now cables and overland wires bind together 
the civilized world. The morning paper in London 
contains the happenings of the day before in Australia 
and India, in South America and California. 

The successful operation of long railway systems 
would hardly be possible but for the telegraph, which 
brings every station directly under the control of the 
superintendent. And the effect of the new means of 
communication on the world's commerce has been 
equally striking. No longer is it necessary for great 
stores of any commodity to be laid up by some middle- 
man. Dealers can order as they need directly from the 
source of production. And with information at hand 
daily from every point of the world, prices are no longer 
subject to so unforeseen fluctuations, and the element of 
chance in commerce is largely reduced.* 

* An incident is related of a well-known writer on economic questions, which 
well illustrates the degree to which the world has been drawn together by 
steam and electricity. " In the winter of 1S84 the writer journeyed from New 
York to Washington with an eminent Boston merchant engaged in the Cal- 
cutta trade. Calling upon the merchant the same evening, after arrival in 
Washington, he said : ' Here is something that may interest you. Just be- 
fore leaving State Street, in Boston, yesterday forenoon, I telegraphed to my 

agent in Calcutta : "If you c;m buy hides and gunny bags at price, and 

find a vessel ready to charter, buy and ship." When I arrived here (Wash- 
ington) this afternoon (4 p. in.) I found awaiting me this telegram from my 
partner in Boston, covering another from Calcutta, received in answer to my 
dispatch of the previous day, which read as follows: "Hides and gunny 
bags purchased, vessel chartered, and loading begun." ' " 



Progress of the World. 321 



Another great achievement of modern science has 
produced far-reaching changes in the world's commerce. The Suez 
In 1S69 the Suez Canal was finished, and at once the 
whole current of Oriental traffic was diverted to the new 
channel. Before the close of the fifteenth century Euro- 
pean trade with India and China was by the overland 
route and the Mediterranean Sea. As the Mohamme- 
dans occupied the lands from Egypt to Constantinople, 
thus being squarely interposed across the route of com- 
merce, the eastern trade was quite at their mercy and 
was greatly hampered by their fanaticism. In 1498 
Vasco da Gama found the route around the southern 
extremity of Africa, and from that time to 1869, Euro- 
pean ships, safe from Turkish exactions, were compelled 
to spend six to eight months in the tedious navigation to 
India and back. England naturally became the center 
of this traffic, and so there grew up in that country a 
vast system of warehousing Oriental goods, of distribu- 
ting them, and of banking and exchange. The opening results. 
of the Suez Canal at once changed the eastern trade to 
its old channels. The time to Calcutta and back was 
made in steamers in less than thirty days. The need of 
laying up great stores of Indian goods in England at 
once disappeared. Importers in Austria, in Italy, in 
France, now order directly from the Asiatic marts. 
And a large volume of English commerce and banking 
has disappeared. 

The great improvements in machinery, and especially 
in steam vessels and railroads, which have so transformed 
commerce in the last quarter of a century, have been 
made possible by nothing more than the invention of 
making steel of uniform excellence and at low cost. 
Steel consists of iron and a small but rather definite per- 
centage of carbon. As the latter is found in iron ore, 



Steel. 



322 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



The Bessemer 
process, 1856. 



Interdepend- 
ence of 
inventions. 



the old method of steel manufacture consisted in burn- 
ing out enough carbon to make the percentage what 
was desired. But as it was difficult to ascertain the 
exact amount of carbon in the ore, and still more diffi- 
cult to stop the combustion at just the right point, 
the result was uncertain and expensive. The essential 
idea in the invention of Sir Henry Bessemer was simply 
to burn out all the carbon in the oar, and then to 
mix with the pure iron while yet molten the exact 
percentage needed. This process has been so im- 
proved that now steel has become about as cheap as 
iron. And as it is vastly stronger and more durable, 
it has replaced iron for nearly all structural purposes. 
The frames of great buildings, ships, the rails on 
which our loaded trains run, all are of steel. It is 
since 1878 that steel ships have replaced those of 
wood or iron. And so far has the process gone that 
it seems that the nineteenth century will end as the age 
of steel. 

It will be seen that these discoveries which have so 
transformed society in our century are mutually inter- 
dependent. Until machinery was devised which made 
it possible to produce commodities in quantities practi- 
cally unlimited, the old means of transportation and 
exchange were ample. But the flood of manufactures 
poured on the world from the new factories called 
at once for wider markets, and these could only be 
reached by reducing the cost and the dreary delay of 
transit. But the rapid conveyance of goods made it 
almost imperative that there should be a means of still 
more rapid communication. And each reacting on 
the other to stimulate it to the highest degree, called 
for a material which should be at once cheap and strong 
to endure the rush and wear of modern industry. 



Progress of the World. 323 

Steam, electricity, and steel are the tools of the nine- 
teenth century.* 

SUMMARY. 

The first steamboat was used on the Hudson in 1807. 
After 1838 regular ocean voyages were made by steam vessels. 

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened in 1S29. 

The electric telegraph has been an important factor in the 
development of transportation systems. 

The Suez Canal has changed the lines of commerce with the 
east. 

The great inventions of the century are mutually interde- 
pendent. 



* The inventions above detailed are only some of the more conspicuous of 
those which mark our age. Mr. Wells gives a list of those which are due to 
the last half century, and whose full development belongs to a period still 
more recent. 

"The mechanical reapers, mowing and seeding machines; the Bessemer 
process and the steel rail (1857); the submarine and transoceanic telegraph 
cables (1S66); photography and all its adjuncts; electroplating and the 
electrotype; the steam hammer, repeating and breech-loading firearms, and 
rifled and steel cannon; gun cotton and dynamite; the industrial use of 
India rubber and gutta-percha ; the steam excavator and steam drill ; the 
sewing machine; the practical use of the electric light; the application of 
dynamo electricity as a motor for machinery; the steam fire engine; the 
telephone, microphone, spectroscope, and the process of spectral analysis ; 
the polariscope ; the compound steam engine; the centrifugal process of 
refining sugar; the rotary printing press; hydraulic lifts, cranes, and eleva- 
tors; the "regenerative" furnace, iron and steel ships, pressed glass, wire 
rope, petroleum and its derivatives, and aniline dyes ; the industrial use of 
the metal nickel, cotton-seed oil, artificial butter, stearine candles, natural 
gas, cheap postage, and the postage stamp. Electricity, which a very few 
years ago was regarded as something wholly immaterial, has now acquired a 
sufficiently objective existence to admit of being manufactured and sold the 
same as pig iron or leather. In short, to one whose present memory and life 
experiences do not extend over a period of time more extensive than what is 
represented by a generation, the recital of the economic experiences and 
industrial conditions of the generation next preceding is very much akin to a 
recurrence to ancient history." — Recent Economic Changes, p. 64. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 



The military 
situation. 



The armv. 



The navy. 



The most obvious and serious thing in the present 
European situation is the military question. Each 
nation is a great armed camp. The entire able-bodied 
male population is trained for war. The most scientific 
weapons are at hand in great profusion, and there is a 
constant rivalry to provide something more deadly still. 
At the same time there are reasons for jealousy and 
collisions of interest likely at any time to lead to 
hostilities. 

The Prussian system of universal compulsory military 
service has been generally adopted on the Continent. 
Each young man on reaching a certain age, usually 
twenty years, is liable to a definite period (two or three 
years) of service in the active army, and then to a 
somewhat longer period (four years in Germany) in 
the reserve. Thereafter he belongs to the militia, which 
is only called out on emergency. The lack of money, 
with some other considerations, somewhat reduces the 
number who are actually drafted into the active army, 
so that not more than about two thirds of those who 
annually reach the age of twenty really serve. Still, 
the force constantly under arms in the great nations 
averages about a half million. And in case of great 
danger five or six times that number of trained men 
could readily be mobilized. The navy, too, is kept at 
the highest point of efficiency. New battle-ships and 
cruisers are built annually. The harbors and the land 

324 



Questions of the Day. 



325 



frontiers are defended by elaborate fortifications plenti- 
fully mounted with the heaviest and most improved 
artillery. And the railroad and telegraph make war a 
matter of weeks instead of years. 

The Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, 
Italy) keep under arms constantly in the army over a 
million of men. 
France has 560,000, 
Russia 835,000. 
England has the 
most powerful navy, 
consisting of nearly 
500 vessels of all 
classes. France is 
second, having over 
400. Italy, Ger- 
many, and Russia 
are not far behind. 

The Franco- Prus- 
sian War of 1870 
was fought with 
breech -loading 
rifles. But the weap- 
ons of that day are 
long since obsolete, 
and the armies are now provided with magazine guns and The new 

. t 11 -i weapons. 

smokeless powder, thus being able to throw bullets with 
greater rapidity, further, and with more force than ever 
before. New explosives of high power are used in the 
shells of the artillery, and machine guns pour bullets in 
showers. 

That international relations are at high tension is very The danger 

. j points. 

plain. The two danger points are Alsace-Lorraine and 
Constantinople. 




William II., German Emperor. 



326 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

The crushing defeat of France, in 1870, left a bitter 
G I rraan^ nd desire for revenge. And the humiliation was made 
utter by the annexation of Alsace and eastern Lorraine 
to Germany. The statues which represent those de- 
partments in the Place de la Concorde, at Paris, are 
yet hung with funeral wreaths. And no prudence of 
statesmanship would probably avail to keep France 
from war with Germany if a favorable opportunity 
should come. The keen policy of Bismarck, continued 
by his successors, for a long time kept France practi- 
cally isolated in European politics, while Germany has 
had and still has powerful allies. The last few years, 
however, have seen a cordiality between France and 
Russia which has ripened into an alliance. How far the 
terms of this agreement extend is not made public. 
But at least France is no longer isolated. 

The Balkan peninsula is yet in a state of unstable 
equilibrium. There will be uncertainty and danger in 
the east as long as the Turks retain any foothold in 
Europe. It is clear that some day they must go back 
to Asia, and then something must be done with Con- 
Constantinopie. stantinople. The fate of that strategic city, and the 
mutual relations of the lands in the peninsula, are 
matters of great importance to Russia, to England, to 
Austria- Hungary, as well as to the small powers imme- 
diately concerned, such as Greece and Bulgaria. Every- 
body dreads any collision in the Balkans, for no one 
can tell how far the flames of war might spread. 

It is difficult to see how war can long be avoided. 
When it comes it will apparently be so fearfully de- 
structive as to make future wars much less likely. No 
triumph of statesmanship would be greater than to 
reduce the armaments of Europe below the danger 
point and to provide international courts of arbitration 



Cost of wars. 



Questions of the Day. 327 

which should take the place of international hostilities. 
Courts of law now make private war practically im- 
possible. It will be a great advance of civilization when 
the standing army shall be as obsolete as the medieval 
knight in- his panoply of combat. 

Meanwhile, the expense of the present system is Cost of arm i es . 
crushing. Millions of men are kept constantly out of 
productive employment. And the military establish- 
ments cost huge sums annually in taxes. 

This is the cost in peace. War destroys life and 
property with fearful rapidity. It is estimated that the 
European wars since the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
tury have cost the lives of 2,500,000 men, and no less 
than $12,000,000,000 in money. 

Men will learn some day that international wars are 
as senseless as Corsican vendettas. 

International disputes are not the only source of 
danger to the stability of European institutions. Grow- 
ing intelligence and the modern means of transmitting 
knowledge and opinions have generated among the 
poor a keen consciousness of what they lack and of 
what means of happiness other classes possess. This 
gives rise to investigation into the fundamental princi- 
ples of social organization — and investigation leads to 
skepticism. Some schools of social philosophy h'ave 
been created which attack the right of individuals to 
own property. This doctrine takes various forms. 
One view holds that there should be no private prop- 
erty in land. This is the theory which Henry George 
so ingeniously developed. Another class maintains 
that all means of production should belong to society 
as a whole. And the particular form known as State 
socialism would make the State the owner, and its 
government the administrator, not of land alone, but 



Socialism. 



325 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



of factories, railroads, telegraphs, and warehouses, as 
well. 

state socialism. There is undoubtedly a tendency, of late years, for 
the government to act as the agent of society in many 
things which conduce to the general welfare. The pos- 
tal service is an example. In Italy, Germany, and other 
nations, the railroads and telegraphs are largely owned 
by the State. Switzerland and Sweden have a govern- 
ment monopoly of the liquor traffic. In France the sale 
of tobacco, gunpowder, and matches belongs exclusively 
to the State. A Prussian law of 1891 for the pensioning 
of superannuated workingmen is also a form of State 
socialism. 

But these are merely tendencies. And it by no means 
follows that in the end the State will wholly monopolize 
all means of production. At any rate, so long as the 
agitation of socialistic theorists extends no further than 
to exposition and argument, society is in no danger. 

However, there is an extreme school of socialists who 
hold that the present industrial system is radically wrong 
— that "property is robbery" — and that the only way 
of effecting an adequate social reconstruction is by forci- 
ble revolution. To these people government of any kind 
is merely tyranny, and all the institutions of society are 
fit only for destruction. And these fanatics are armed 
with the forces of modern science. High explosives are 
cheap and easily made, and the dynamite bomb is the 
means of their war on society. These anarchists have 

The Nihilists exploded their infernal missives in a theater at Barce- 
lona, in the French Chamber of Deputies, and in the 
Church of the Madeleine. It was such terrorists that 
assassinated Alexander II., of Russia, in 1881, and Pres- 
ident Carnot, of France, in 1894. They are a grave 
menace to order and the security of life and property. 



Anarchy. 



Questions of the Day. 329 

Socialistic theories find the readier acceptance be- 
cause of the dense multitudes of poor in the midst of our 
modern social life. The conditions of labor have been 
greatly altered by the economic revolution of the cen- The questions 

° J J of labor and 

tury, and not always for the better. The laborer has poverty. 

largely lost personality since he has ceased to do his 

work in his own home, and is now dealt with in the 

mass. There has been a creation of wealth without , , , , 

The wealth of 

parallel since the new inventions have so increased the England has 

. . , . . . about tripled 

possibilities of human power and skill. Population has since the cen- 

r 1 tury opened. 

increased to a large extent. The tendency has been for 
people to drift to the cities, where the new industrial 
life affords more and more possibilities. London has 
grown from 837,000 in 1801 to over 6,000,000 in 1897 > 
Paris from 547,000 in 1800 to 2,500,000 ; Berlin from 
331,000 in 1840 to over 1,500,000. 

On the whole, the laboring classes are in better case 
now than they were a hundred years since. But with 
increasing intelligence they are more keenly conscious of 
the discrepancy between their mode of life and that of 
the wealthy. They feel, sometimes rather blindly, that 
they have not their share in the world's gain in wealth 
and comfort. They have learned to combine for what 
they consider their own interests. And the convulsions 
of industry caused by the startling changes in the new 
economic methods produce great suffering among those 
whose means of subsistence are just on the margin. All 
these things make a ferment among those who do not 
succeed in the struggle of life. And all forms of social- 
ism are correspondingly recruited. 

The democratic tendency in modern states has put the rT . 

J r _ Universal 

elective franchise in the hands of large classes which in suffrage. 
previous ages have had no voice in government. Uni- 
versal suffrage is the law in France, and, substantially, 



33° 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 



Hereditary 
legislatures. 



Land tenures. 



in all other constitutional countries. Austria has a com- 
plicated system of voting by classes. But during the 
winter of 1893-4, Count Taafe's ministry fell in the 
attempt to make the qualification simpler. Some two 
or three million additional voters would have resulted 
from the adoption of his measure. The change cannot 
be long delayed. In Belgium the relatively high prop- 
erty qualification was done away in 1893. And while 
an attempt was made to preserve weight for education 
and wealth, by giving two or three votes each to some 
classes of people, yet on the whole the suffrage was 
made democratic. 

While universal suffrage thus creates the lower house 
of each national legislature, there still remains an aristo- 
cratic upper house in nearly every state. England is 
now very democratic in many ways, but the absurdity of 
an hereditary House of Lords, of which it needs but 
three for a quorum, yet prevails at Westminster. How 
to amend the British constitution so as to eliminate this 
antique survival, and yet preserve the government from 
the danger of an omnipotent, unicameral Parliament, is 
one of the gravest problems of British statesmanship. 

The feudal land tenures have undergone many changes 
in modern society. In France, the rule is that the soil is 
owned in small parcels by the actual cultivator. There 
are 2,000,000 properties, each of less than twelve 
acres. In Germany and Austria, the revolution of 1848 
put the land to a great extent in the hands of the 
peasants. But in many other places great estates pre- 
vail, and farmers are mere tenants. This is notably the 
case in the British Islands. In England, one fourth of 
the land is held by 1,200 owners, averaging 16,200 acres 
each ; another fourth belongs to 6,200 owners, with an 
average of 3,150 acres; a third quarter has 50,770 



Questions of the Day. 331 

owners, averaging 380 acres ; and the remaining fourth 
is held by 261,830 owners, with an average of 70 acres. 
Roughly speaking, 600 peers hold a fifth of the English 
land. The same fact is even more obvious in its conse- 
quences in Ireland, where absenteeism so largely pre- 
vails. It seems likely that the system of entail, which 
permits so large estates, will be abrogated in the near 
future. Agrarian discontent is based on actual suffering, 
and this comes to a considerable extent from the anti- 
quated land system. 

National autonomy has been won in this century in National 
many parts of Europe. Germany, Italy, Hungary, 
Greece, Servia, Bulgaria, Roumania, are now free and 
self-governing. Poland remains dismembered, and its 
future seems hopeless. Ireland, while hardly likely to 
attempt secession from the British Empire, is struggling 
desperately for Home Rule. Norway is engaged in a 
similar contest, demanding perfect equality with its sister 
kingdom of Sweden, or the rupture of the tie which 
holds the dual Scandinavian monarchy. Bohemia as- 
pires to the rehabilitation of the old Cekhish kingdom, 
aiming to enlarge the number of constituents in the 
Austro-Hungarian federation. And if Bohemia suc- 
ceeds, the other Slavic lands of Francis Joseph will 
hardly be content with their present dependent status. 

Thus it will be observed that the principle of nation- 
ality, which served to unify Italy and Germany, is a dis- Disruptive 
ruptive force in the Turkish Empire, in Austria, Norway, 
Sweden, and Great Britain. It may be added that the 
development of independent nationalities, so character- Race jealousies, 
istic of this century, has not been an unmixed blessing. 
Race struggles have led to race antagonisms, which are 
now the bane of European international relations. 
German despises Hun, Hun and Slav hate each other, 



332 



Europe in the Nineteenth Century 



Slav and Hun and Frenchman all hate German. And 
out of this hatred, quite as much as out of clashing 
interests, comes the dread of a gigantic war. Switzer- 
land has proved that people of different race, speech, 
and religious faith can live under one government at 
peace with one another. Mutual justice and forbearance 
are all that are needed. 

The first great social convulsion that followed the re- 




A Modern Locomotive. 



Religion. vival of learning was over questions of religion. These 

wars were ended on the continent of Europe in 1648, 
and the revolution of 1688 practically ended them in 
England. But yet in many forms the religious question 
is a vital and a disturbing one to-day. In Italy the 
papacy is an imperhim in imperio. The discord be- 
tween pope and king endangers the safety of free insti- 
tutions. And Italy cannot be regarded as on a per- 



Questions of the Day. 333 

manent basis until the question of the pope is put at 
rest. In Great Britain the established Church remains 
as a part of the organized State, although in neither 
England, Scotland, nor Wales does it count a majority 
of the people among its adherents. And throughout 
Europe the clergy yet maintain close relations with the Education and 
lower schools. Democracy means universal elementary 
education in mere self-protection. But Europe has not 
yet learned the American idea of free, unsectarian edu- 
cation for all at the cost of the state. 

These are some of the questions of the day. They are 
sufficiently grave. Europe has made marvelous prog- 
ress since Louis XVI. summoned the States-General in 
1789. The whole structure of society is revolutionized. 
The divine right of the people has displaced the divine 
right of kings. In central and southern Europe power- 
ful nations exist where a hundred years ago there were 
mere fragments. The Turk is barely clinging to the 
shore of the Bosphorus. Steam and electricity have 
created a new world of manufactures and commerce. 
Science has delved deep into the mysteries of nature. 
The last decade of the century looks out on life with 
more intelligent eyes than the first. But it sees serious 
evils with which society must grapple. 

The nineteenth century has provided the tools of 
civilization in rich abundance. It will be the task of the 
twentieth century to wield those tools in the structure of 
a better social fabric. 

SUMMARY. 

Every European nation is an armed camp. The Triple 
Alliance has standing armies aggregating more than 1,000,000 
men. 

The two danger points in international politics are Alsace- 
Lorraine and Constantinople. 



334 Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 

France wants only a suitable opportunity to seek revenge 
for 1870. 

There will be uncertainty and danger in the Balkans as long 
as the Turk remains in Europe. 

Increase of knowledge among the poor has bred socialism, 
which, in an extreme form, becomes anarchy. 

Everywhere there is a tendency toward universal suffrage, 
which is hard to reconcile with an hereditary upper house. 

Feudal land tenures have been much modified. 

The principle of nationality is a disruptive tendency in 
Turkey, Austria, Norway, Sweden, and Great Britain. 

In Italy the religious question remains unsettled, and in 
Great Britain the established Church is a political issue. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Note. — There has been no attempt to make this ex- 
haustive. Only those books are cited which are accessi- 
ble, which are in the English language, and which are, 
on the whole, reliable. Others are omitted which may- 
have all these qualities. But it is believed that those 
below will make a good working library for the general 
student. 

I. 

General Works. 

Fyffe, C. A. : History of Modem Europe. 3 Vols. 

1891. 
M uller, W. : Political History of Recent Times. 

Translated by John P. Peters. 
McCarthy : History of Our Own Times. 2 Vols. 
Ploetz : Epitome of History. Translated by W. H. 

Tillinghast. 
Ramsay: Europe. In Stanford's Compendium of 

Geography and Travel. 
Statesman's Year- Book. Issued annually. 
Appleton : Annual Cyclopedia. 
Hadley : Railroad Transportation. 
Wells, D. A. : Recent Economic Changes. 

II. 

The French Revolution. 

Alison, Sir A. : History of Europe. From a High Tory 

point of view. 
Carlyle, T. : History of the French Revolution. 
Lanfrey : History of Napoleon. 4 Vols. 
Lowell, E. J. : The Eve of the French Revolution. 
Morris : The French Revolution. Epoch Series. 
Michelet, J. : History of the French Revolution. 



33^ Bibliography. 



Sybel, H. von: History of the French Revolution. The 

best in English. 
Thiers, A. : History of the French Revolution. 
Thiers, A.: History of the Consulate and Empire. 

III. 

France Since 1815. 

Lebon and Pelet : France As r It Is. 

De Maupas : The Coup a" Flat. 

Kinglake : The Invasion of the Crimea. Vol. I. 

Simon : The Government of Thiers. 

IV. 
Italy. 

Probyn : Italy, 1815 to 1890. 

Dicey : Life of Victor Emmanuel. 

Bent : Life of Garibaldi. 

Bent : San Marino. 

Mazzini : Life and Writiiigs. 

V. 

Austria-Hungary. 

Whitman : Austria- Hungary. 

De Worms : The Austro- Hungarian Empire. 

Deak, F. : Memoirs. 

Vambery : The Story of Hungary. (Story of the 

Nation Series.) 
Metternich : Memoirs. 
Malleson : Life of Metternich. 
Hozier : The Seven Weeks' War. 

VI. 

Germany. 

Seeley : Life of Stein. 

Busch : Our Chancellor. 

Lowe : Prince Bismarck. 

Whitman : Imperial Germany. 

Baring-Gould : Germany, Past and Present. 

Malleson : The Refotinding of the German Empire. 



Bibliography. 337 



VII. 

Russia. 

Rambaud : History of Russia. 3 Vols. 
Wallace : Russia. A good descriptive book. 
Heard : The Russian Church and Russian Dissent. 
Tikhomirov : Russia, Political and Social. 
Stepniak : The Russian Peasantry. 

VIII. 

Turkey and the Eastern Question. 

Lane-Poole : Turkey. 
Latham : Russian and Turk. 
Laveleye : The Balkan Peninsula. 
Freeman : The Ottoman Power in Europe. 
Ranke : Servia and the Servian Revolution. 
Samuelson : Roumania, Past and Present. 
Clark : The Races of European Turkey. 
Timayenis : History of Greece. 

IX. 
Great Britain. 

Escott : England. 

Bright: History of England. Vols. III. and IV. 

Walpole: History of England. (From 181 5.) 6 Vols. 

Molesworth : History of England. 3 Vols. 

Ward : Reign of Queen Victoria. 2 Vols. 

McCarthy: The Epoch of Reform. (Epoch Series.) 

Imperial Parliament Series. 8 Small Vols. 

English Citizen Series. 13 Small Vols. 

Dean : Short History of Ireland. 

Lecky : England in the Eighteenth Century. Vols. 

VII. and VIII. 
Seeley : The Expayision of England. 
Cotton and Payne : Colonies and Dependencies. 
Cox, H. : History of the Reform Bills of 1866-j. 
McCarthy: England Under Gladstone. (1880-5.) 
Payne, E. J. : European Colonies. 
Lowe : Imperial Federation. 



338 Bibliography. 



Feilden : Short Constitutional History of England. 
Morley : Life of Cobden. 
Kebbel : Life of Beaconsfield. 
Emerson : Life of Gladstone. 

X. 

Small Central States. 

Adams and Cunningham : The Swiss Confederation. 
Grattan : History of the Netherlands. 
Rogers : Story of Holland. 

XI. 

Scandinavian and Iberian Peninsulas. 

Otte : Scandinavian History. 
Otte : Denmark and Iceland. 
Boyesen : The Story of Norway. 
Harrison: History of Spam. 
Webster : Spain. 
Crawfurd : Portugal, Old and New. 



INDEX. 



Albanians, 254. 

Alexander I., 52, 55, 74, 84, 245, 266. 

Alexander II., 246, 249. 

Alexander III., 243, 249. 

Alfonso XII., 301. 

Alfonso XIII., 301. 

Alsace-Lorraine, 156, 325. 

Amadeo, 301. 

Amiens, treaty of, 47. 

Anarchy, 328. 

Arkvvright, 309. 

Austerlitz, battle of, 51. 

Austria, 27, 35, 41, 46, 50, 51, 52, 54, 55 ^ 

56, 67, 74, 77, 80, 81, 82,83,85, 102, 108, 

109, Ch. IX., 141, 150, 160, 161, Ch. 

XV., 271,280. 
Baden, 49, 153. 
Bakunin, 248. 
Ballot, English, 220. 
Bank of France, 65. 
Basques, 295. 
Bastille, 33. 

Bavaria, 49, 51, 52, 56, 153. 
Bazaine, 155. 
Beaconsfield, 274, 275. 
Belgium, 41, 58, 66, 78, 91, 92, 289. 
Berlin, treaty of, 275. 
Bernadotte, 62, 297. 
Bessemer process, 312, 322. 
Bismarck, 147, 150, 153, 195, 199. 
Blanc, Louis, 97. 
Bliicher, 5S. 
Bohemia, m, 174. 
Bonaparte,.Joseph, 52, 54. 
Bonaparte, Louis, 52, 289. 
Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon, 98, 99, 100, 

128, 130, 137, 153, 154, 161, 162, 164, 

1 89. 
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 

Ch. III., 61, 93, 98. 
Borodino, battle of, 55. 
Boroughs, 205, 206, 207. 
Bosnia, 173, 272, 275, 2S0. 



Boulogne, 49, 51. 

Boycott, 235. 

Bulgaria, 254, 256, 264, 272, 275, 276, 277. 

Calico, 310. 

Campo Formio, treaty of, 41. 

Canals, 315. 

Capodistrias, 262. 

Carbonari, the, 124. 

Carlos, 300. 

Carlowitz, treaty of, 259. 

Carnot, 3S, 41. 

Carnot, Sadi, 183, 1S8, 328. 

Cartvvright, 309. 

Casimir-Perier, 1S5, 188. 

Castelar, 301, 302. 

Castlereagh, 73. 

Catholic emancipation, 230. 

Cavaignac, 97, 98, 100. 

Cavour, 158, 162. 

Chambord, Count de, 137, 179. 

Charles IV. of Spain, 53. 

Charles X., 87, 88. 

Charles Albert, 113, 126, 128. 

Chartists, the, 217. 

Christian VIII. of Denmark, 108, 149. 

Christina, 300, 301. 

Church, French, 23, 48, 49, 63, 65. 

Church of Ireland, disestablishment 

of, 230, 231. 
Civil service reform, 226. 
Coal, 307, 311. 

Codes, French, 47, 48, 65, 66. 
Committee of Public Safety, 37, 38, 39, 

40. 
Commune, the, 177, i8r, 183. 
Concordat, the, 48. 

Confederation of the Rhine, 52, 57, 66. 
Congress of Vienna, Ch. V. 
Constantinople, 256, 257, 270, 325, 326. 
Consul, First, 46, 47, 48. 
Continental System, the, 53. 
Convention, French, 36, 40. 
Corn Laws, 225. 



34° 



Index. 



Corrupt practices at elections, 220. 

Corvee, 24. 

Cotton, 307. 

Cotton gin, 310. 

Council of Ancients, 40, 43. 

Council of Five Hundred, 40, 43. 

Council of State, 46. 

County councils, 223. 

Crete, 237, 278. 

Crimea, 140, 267. 

Crompton, 309. 

Culturkampf, 1S6, 194. 

Custozza, 127. 

Davy, Sir Humphry, 312. 

Deak, 172. 

Denmark, 19, 57, 107, 109, 144, Ch. 

XXVII. 
Diet, the old Germanic, 26. 
Directory, the, 41, 42, 43. 
Dumouriez, 37. 
Dushan, Stephen, 257. 
Eastern Question, the, 270, 280. 
Education, 193. 
Egypt, 42, 43. 
Elba, 57, 5 8. 

Election contests, English, 219. 
Emancipation of serfs, 247. 
England, 20, 29, 37, 47, 49, 61,68,78, 

238, 271,275. 
Eugenie, 139, 140, 181. 
Factory Act, the, 216. 
Faure, Francois Felix, 187, 188, 189. 
Fenians, the, 230. 

Ferdinand, Prince of Bulgaria, 277. 
Ferdinand VII. of Spain, 84, 85, 299. 
Ferry, Jules, 184. 
Feudalism, 21, 28, 33, 67. 
France, 20, 49, 74, 85, Ch. XVI., 199. 
Franchise in France, 95. 
Francis, Emperor, 72. 
Francis Joseph, 116, 169, 172. 
Frankfort, 104. 
Frederick VII. of Denmark, 107, 107, 

149. 
Frederick William II., 107. 
Frederick William III., 52, 72, 75. 
Free trade, 224. 
Fulton, Robert, 316. 
Gambetta, 178, 1S6. 
Garibaldi, 129, 158, 163, 164. 
Genoa, 78. 



George IV., 211. 

George, King of Greece, 262, 279. 

Germany, 26, 28, 46, 49, 52, Ch. VIII.,. 

67. 68, 75, 83, 133, Ch. XIII., 156, 190. 
Girondists, the, 34, 36, 37. 
Gladstone, 215, 231, 233, 234, 236, 237. 
Gorgey, 116. 
Gourko, 273. 

Greece, 254, 260, 261, 262, 275. 
Grevy, 182, 186. 
Grey, Earl, 212. 
Guizot, 91, 96. 
Gypsies, 255. 
Hapsburgs, the, 27. 
Hardenberg, 72. 
Hargreaves, 309. 
Herzegovina, 173, 272, 275, 280. 
Hohenlinden, 46. 
Holland, 29, 49, 52, 55, 78. 
Holy Alliance, the, 84. 
Holy Roman Empire, the, 19, 26, 52. 
Home Rule, 234, 236, 237. 
House of Commons, 205. 
Humboldt, 72. 

Hungary, no, 113, 116, 171, 172. 
Ibrahim Pasha, 261. 
Ireland, Ch. XXI. 
Iron, 307, 311. 
Italy, 29, 41, 46, 49, 52, 55, 66, 68, 78, 83,. 

92, 112, Ch. X., Ch. XI., 133, 150, 

151, Ch. XIV. 
Jacobins, the, 34, 37, 38, 40. 
Jellacic, 114, 116. 
Jena, battle of, 52. 
Jews, 196, 250, 255. 
Josephine, 50, 54, 98. 
Kiel, Peace of, 296. 
Koniggratz, battle of, 151. 
Kossovo, battle of, 257. 
Kossuth, in, 116. 
Lafayette, 37. 
Land in France, 63. 
Land, Irish, 232, 233, 234, 235. 
Land tenures, 330. 
Lazar, 257. 
Legion of Honor, 65. 
Legislative Assembly, 34, 46. 
Leipzig, battle of, 56. 
Leopold II., 291. 
Local government, 222. 
Lombardy, 112, 127, 142. 



Index. 



341 



London, 224. 

Louis XVI., 31, 35, 3 6 , 37- 

Louis XVIII., 57- 59, 86, 87. 

Louis Philippe, 89, 90, 92. 

Luneville, treaty of, 46, 49. 

Macadam, 315. 

Mack, 51. 

MacMahon, 155, 186. 

Malta, 49. 

Manin, 128. 

Mantua, 46. 

Marengo, battle of, 46. 

Maria Louisa, 55. 

Marie Antoinette, 35, 38. 

Massena, 62. 

Maupas, 131. 

Maximilian, Archduke, 143. 

May Laws, French, 131. 

May Laws, German, 195. 

Mazzini, 115, 129, 158, 159. 

Mehemet Ali, 92, 261, 278. 

Melikof, 249. 

Metternich, 72, 80. 

Metz, 155. 

Mexico, 143. 

Milan, 112, 113, 127. 

Military system, 324. 

Moltke, 155. 

Montenegro, 255, 263, 273. 

Moore, Sir John, 54. 

Moravia, 51. 

Moreau, 46. 

Moray, 131. 

Moscow, 55. 

Murat, 62. 

Naples, 85, 126, 164. 

Napoleon, Prince, 142. 

Nasmyth, 312. 

National Assembly, Bohemian, 112 

National Assembly, French, 32, 33 
47, 48, 97, 9 8 > J 32, J 55, 176, 180. 

National Assembly, German, 104, 
106, 107. 

National debt, English, 204. 

Nelson, 42. 

Netherlands, the, 78, 287. 

Nicholas, 116, 246, 266, 270. 
Nicholas II., 248, 249. 
Nihilists, 248, 249, 328. 
Nile, battle of the, 42. 
Noblesse, French, 21, 59. 



North German Federation, 152. 

Norway, 19, Ch. XXVII., 297. 

Novara, battle of, 128. 

O'Connell, 230. 

Oscar II., 299. 

Otho, King of Greece, 262. 

Oudinot, 12S, 129. 

Panama Canal, 188. 

Pan-Slavism, 174. 

Paris, 57. 

Paris, Peace of, 141. 

Parnell, 234, 237. 

Parties, English, 214. 

Peasants, French, 22, 63. 

Peers, House of, 222. 

Peter the Great, 245, 26S. 

Pitt, William, 229. 

Pius IX., 125, 12S, 166. 

Poland, 52, 74, 75, 144, 247- 

Poor Law, English, 215. 

Portugal, 54, 74, 295, Ch. XXVII. , 

302. 
Prague, 56, 112. 
Prague, Peace of, 151. 
Prussia, 28, 35, 39, 52, 55, 56, 67, 74. 77, 

102, 109, 133, 147- 
Radetzky, 112, 115, 127. 
Railways, 318. 
Referendum, the, 286. 
Reform, Parliamentary, 210, 212, 213, 

219, 221. 
Reign of Terror, 39. 
Religion, Russian, 241. 
Revolutionary Tribunal, French, 37, 

39, 4°- 
Rhine, the, 41, 46. 
Roads, 314. 
Robespierre, 39, 4°- 
Rome, 128, 165, 166. 
Rosebery, 236, 237. 
Roumania, 255, 261, 263, 273, 277. 
I05 , Russia, 50, 55, 56, 74, 78, "6, Mi, 19°, 
199, Ch. XX., 265, Ch. XXV., 280. 
Sadi-Carnot, 183, 188, 328. 
Salisbury, Marquis of, 235, 237. 
San Marino, 120. 
San Stefano, treaty of, 273. 
Sardinia, 78, 83, 160. 
Savoy, 66, 143. 
Saxony, 74, 75- 
Schleswig-Holstein, 107, 108, 149, 150. 



342 



Index. 



Schwarzenberg, 115. 

Sedan, 155. 

Servia, 255, 256, 257, 264, 273, 276, 2S1. 

Sevastopol, 141. 

Sicily, 164. 

Slavery, abolition of, 215. 

Slavs, 113, 114. 

Socialism, 93, 97, 196, 327. 

Sonderbund, the, 286. 

Spain, 37, 39, 53, 57, 74, 84, 154, Ch. 

XXVII. 
St. Arnaud, 131. 
St. Helena, 58, 93. 
States-General, French, 31, 
Steamboats, 316. 
Steam engine, 313. 
Steel, 312, 321. 
Stein, 75. 
Stephenson, 318. 
Suez Canal, 271, 321. 
Suffrage, English, 208. 
Sweden, 56, 74, 78, Ch. XXVII. 
Switzerland, 49, 78, 284. 
Taille, the, 24. 
Talleyrand, 73, 75. 
Taxation, Turkish, 252. 
Telegraph, electric, 319. 
Telford, 315. 

Tennis court, oath in the, 32. 
Thiers, 91,93,96, 100, 176, 178. 
Third estate, French, 23, 32. 
Tithe war, the, 231. 
Tribunate, the, 46. 



Triple Alliance, 173, Ch. XVII. 

Tuileries, sack of, 35. 

Turkey, 19, 140, Ch. XXIII., 257, Ch. 

XXIV., Ch. XXV. 
Ulm, 51. 

Ulster custom, 233. 
Union, Irish, 229, 230. 
University of France, 65. 
Yarennes, 34. 
Venice, 41, 112, 128, 165. 
Versailles, 32. 
Victor Emmanuel, 128, 129, 158, 160, 

164, 165. 
Victoria, 217, 276. 
Vienna, 41, 46, 51, 54, no, in, 115. 
Vienna, Congress of, 79, 101. 
Voltaire, 24. 
Wagram, battle of, 54. 
Waterloo, battle of, 58, 61. 
Watt, 313. 

Wellington, 57, 58, 61, 73, 211, 212. 
William I., Emperor, 147, 150, 152, 154^ 

156. 
William II., Emperor, 325. 
William IV. of England, 211. 
Windhorst, 196. 

Windischgratz, 112, 113, 115, 116. 
Wool, 30S. 

Workshops, national, in France, 97. 
Wurtemberg, 49, 51, 52, 109, 153. 
" Young Ireland," 230. 
Zollverein, the, 103. 
Zurich, Peace of, 142, 161. 



JUL 



